Changed Lives
by The Antisocial Bookworm
Summary: Sometimes you don't need a huge army. Sometimes you don't need years upon years of training. Sometimes you don't need strong adults with scythes, guns, and swords. Sometimes all you need is a small, simple soul. And a six foot tall scythe. Currently on hiatus, undergoing reconstruction, expect a bit of confusion if reading.
1. Level 1, A Good Place to Start

A/N: Welcome to the not so new but definetly improved story! This chapter used to take up chapters 1-4. Enjoy!

* * *

RWBY

October 4th

Blonde brawler, Yang, was off doing her thing, whatever that was... Probably beating people up at a bar... She was known for that. Not that her father knew. Yang and her sister were visiting Vale, and the older girl had told Ruby to go 'occupy herself' for an hour or two.

When silver eyed Ruby had asked what she was supposed to do while Yang was busy, the yellow clad brawler pointed towards a shopping district. Ruby had followed her sister's gaze, and heard her rapid footsteps when the yellow clad brawler took off in the opposite direction. _Jokes on her, I could catch up if I wanted too._

Make no mistake, Ruby understood time, it was an easy thing to grasp. That for some people a minute didn't speed by, or a second wasn't as fast as saying the word 'one.' But it really didn't matter to Ruby. So time went a little faster for her, she could slow her own perception down to just slightly faster than 'normal.' She just had to actively concentrate on it.

So as Ruby felt that she was trudging towards a store at a slow pace, other people saw a red clad girl with a folded weapon hidden beneath a cape, walking at a normal, if not hurried, speed towards a dust shop.

Not that anyone paid attention to her. She opened the door and heard a soft jingle from the bells above her head. The store owner was bent behind the counter, but poked his head up and nodded at her upon arrival, he then ducked back down under the counter. _Odd guy..._

Ruby walked past the different vials and canisters of dust, and marveled at the crystals. To the right of the counter was a fairly new invention, jewelry imbued with dust. Purely for looks, but if needed, could become a powerful tool for safety in the dangerous backstreets of Vale.

One necklace caught her eye, a small red pendant on a silver chain, the pendant was in the shape of a rose, but had a cross inlaid into the center. It was beautiful. It was way too expensive. Ruby moved towards the back of the store. Magazines lined the walls, some comics intermingled with them, but the magazines were what caught her eye. The hooded girl took out a pair of headphones, and picked up a magazine that read, "Arial Atlas: New Bullhead Creation"

The music and the magazine lured her into a peaceful state of unawareness to her surroundings. That is until she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned around, her hood falling off in the process. A Man in a red and black suit, adorned with a bowler hat and sunglasses, had an angry look, but when her hood fell, it momentarily became one of exasperation, before he glared and pointed to his head.

Ruby took the hint, and removed her headphones, letting them rest around her neck, she was just in time to hear him ask, "d'ya got a death wish or somthin'?" Not knowing how to answer him, she gave him a confused, "yes?"

The man seemed off put for a moment, before regaining his composure, "put your hands in the air!" He brandished his weapon, a sort of small sword thing. Ruby took a look at it and cracked a small confused smile, "are you robbing me?"

"Yes!" Came the exasperated yell from the man, but his glare quickly left when she nodded her head, "ohhhhhh..." and smiled. The man didn't know what to do, that, Ruby could tell. She had him off guard, if he was confused, she might be able to...

She jumped into the air, and kicked outward with both feet. They collided with the man's stomach painfully. They both flew backwards and crashed through a window, _even on a good day, that only happens with people weaker than a first year Signal student..._ Ruby thought to herself, taken back by how far the man had flown. She'd expected something, much less exiting.

The man was another story. That girl was fast, within a second she'd smiled, then she was in the air, then her feet were colliding with his ribs. People couldn't move that fast, could they? He felt the glass shatter behind him, but that was it. He would later wake up to find himself handcuffed to a Hospital bed, but no one cares about that.

Ruby also crashed through the window. She had been determined to follow through, and since the man had actually fell backward, she had flown by along with him. His body shielded her from the broken glass, 'that's what you get for trying to rob me,' and she landed, slightly ungracefully, on the ground.

Standing up, she noticed a few other people dressed exactly like the man who tried to rob her. She stood up and took the folded piece of metal from its place behind her back. It unfolded almost as quickly as its wielder could move, and Ruby twirled it a few times before implanting the huge scythe into the street.

The one man, who was dressed differently muttered, "Okayyyy..." Before looking at the men surrounding him, "what're you lookin' at!? Get her!" The men approached her, but found themselves dropping like flies. They, as well, would find themselves waking up in a hospital, all handcuffed to the beds, but still, no one cares about them.

The last one flew in the direction of the red-haired man, "well you all were worth every cent." he muttered, staring at the unconcious man. Far off in the distance, sirens could be heard. The two stood at a standstill until they were heard in close proximity, but Red-hair-white-suit-guy seemed unfazed, "Well, Red, this has been exiting, truly, it has, but I must be going now."

Ruby could sense the trouble, the moment he raised an odd looking cane. He shot a round of dust at her, but she easily dogged. When she looked around again, he was nowhere to be found, that is until his grip failed and he muttered a curse before continuing to climb up a ladder behind her.

Turning, Ruby asked the shopkeeper if he was okay, he nodded a yes, so she turned and used the momentum of shooting rounds of dust at the ground to propel herself, and her oversized scythe up the side of the building. When she reached the top, Red-Head guy was running across the roof,

"Hey!" Came her yell, after all, what else do you say when you want them to stop running away, yelling 'stop' seemed a bit rhetorical, after all, they were running away in the first place. The man did stop though, and Ruby could hear him mutter, "persistent." Ready to fight the man, Ruby raised her weapon.

Just as a bullhead rose into the air, _where did that come from?_ She didn't move as the man climbed into the back of the flying contraption, and as it flew upwards, he yelled, "end of the line, Red!" And threw a red dust crystal at her. He then fired. Ruby expected an explosion, and that's what she heard, loud and overpowering.

However, it wasn't what she felt. Opening her eyes, she saw a woman in a purple cape push her glasses back into place before brandishing a wand-like weapon and attacking the ship directly. The last thing Ruby was expecting, even after the arrival of a purple caped woman, was a red clad woman appearing and attacking the older woman and the Red-caped girl with a sort of energy attack.

That put a stop to the purple-caped woman's attack, so Ruby tried her own. It did nothing, as the woman blocked every shot from her weapon, reverted into rifle form. After an explosion that Ruby was again shielded from by the mystery woman, the bullhead flew off into the distance.

Ruby then turned to look at the woman who had come to her aid, it was then that everything clicked, "your a huntress!"

To say the huntress was taken back by the speed at wich the girl spoke, was an understatement, but the woman could understand her perfectly fine, to the point that she frowned when Ruby exclaimed, "can I have your autograph?" The woman muttered an annoyed, "come with me." And grabbed the girl's wrist before leading the her off the roof.

* * *

To say Ruby was disappointed was an understatement, after getting to a police station, the woman, named Glynda, as Ruby had come to find out, had made her call her sister. Yang hadn't been surprised that Ruby had found some trouble, but it would take an hour for her to get all the way across the city of vale.

Until then Ruby was stuck under the supervision of a cranky huntress, and a bunch of annoyed cops. Yup, best evening ever. But as she had just fought a bunch of robbers, she didn't express her one sided opinion. Meanwhile, Glynda had waisted no time in putting Ruby in an interrogation room.

"What were you expecting young lady? Jumping headfirst into danger is not what I'd call a good pastime. You put your's, and others' safety in jeopardy." She circled the young girl, and as she did so, Ruby argued back, "Hey, they started it!"

Frowning the woman, Glynda, turned to her and, with a stern voice, answered, "And I'm finishing it, if it were up to me, you'd get sent home with a pat on the back." She paused as Ruby visibly perked up, "and a slap on the wrist."

The woman slapped the table next to Ruby's hands with her weapon, causing the girl to squeak. "But, someone want's to speak to you." _Oh God, I hope it's not Dad..._ Both females looked up when the door opened to show a man with a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies in his hands. _Thank God it's not dad._

He took a step forward and stated, "Ruby Rose, you have silver eyes." Later Ruby would come to know that he was gauging her response to his statement. When nothing but stutters came from the fifteen year old girl, the green clad man changed the topic.

"I'm curious, where did a young girl like you, learn to use one of the worlds deadliest weapons?" Ruby froze, to anyone else, this situation looked pretty bad, a young girl who knew how to fight? Humanity, as a whole, was keen on making fast, logical assumptions, that many times, couldn't be farther from the truth.

"From Signal?" Her truthful answer held no levity and the man, in her eyes, continued his 'doubtful' questioning. "They taught you to use a scythe?" With any luck, this wouldn't get any worse, but then, Ruby had a habit of making things worse. "Uh, well, one teacher in particular, actually." Ruby muttered, her fight or flight instincts causing her to involuntarily look at the door, causing Glinda to frown. "Oh?"

When Ruby didn't elaborate, the man continued, "I only know of one other scythe wielder of that caliber. A dusty old crow" that earned a reaction, and the girl's entire demeaner lifted,

"Oh!" Ruby drew in an exited breath, "that's my uncle! I was worse then trash before he took me in. He taught me everything I know! I've only got three more years of training until I can try for Beacon."

The green-coffee man nodded to himself, "really?" Ruby gave a nod as well, and the man continued, "do you know who I am?" The girl gave another short nod, "you're Professor Ozpin, headmaster at Beacon."

Ruby was much more at ease with Ozpin then she initially was, upon meeting him. However, his next question caught her off guard, "You want to go to my school?" Her silver eyes lit up with hope and disbelief,

"more then anything in the world." The man, Ozpin, looked at Glynda before,

"Well okay." He said, as calmly as possible, after glancing at a less then pleased Glynda. Time stopped for Ruby for a moment. Usually this never happened, as her semblance always kept her perception of time faster than everyone else's.

However, in this moment, Ruby reached the previously untouched milestone of it stopping. she had to make sure she heard right, "Wait, what?"

"Classes start tomorrow, as you are underage, we will require a signature from your father, allowing you to attend a school meant for people 17 and older. I do understand, you will be turning fifteen soon?" He had Ruby fumbling for words, "Um, yes, a few months from now."

Ruby was off put, the crazy headmaster was rambling on, expecting her to keep up in all the confusion, which don't get her wrong, she did, but even for her, things seemed to be going a little fast. "Good-good, we can put fifteen on your transcripts, it would be an entirely different hurdle to cross if you were even one year younger then fifteen."

"You mean fourteen...?" Ruby muttered to herself, stealing a glance at Glynda, the woman just shrugged. Ozpin was busy handing her a manual and a parental consent form, when a calm Yang dejectedly followed a worried, boarder line panicked, Taiyang as he burst into the room yelling, "Ruby!"

"Uh, hi?" Ruby looked around her father, to her sister, and gave Yang a questioning glance, the older girl just shrugged. Ozpin however, seemed elated, "Good, you're here," he directed his words at Taiyang, but didn't give the man a moment to speak, instead he snatched the consent form out of Ruby's hand, and gave it to her father, "I trust you will sign this?"

Taiyang read the piece of paper, his eyes showing an array of overprotective, I'm the parent of a young teenager, emotions. He then cast an anger filled glance at Ozpin before looking to a puppy eyed Ruby. He sighed, looking defeated, before turning to Yang, who had hung back in all the commotion, "under one condition." he turned to Yang, "you,"

He pointedly looked at his eldest daughter, "look after Ruby. She gets hurt, she comes home, capeesh?"

Yang sighed, "okay, yea dad, I will." He narrowed his eyes, "No, you promise me, now." And Yang groaned in exasperation, "Yes father dearest, from the bottom of my heart, I promise thee, I will watch over Ruby Rose as though she was me'own daughter." Yang placed her right hand on her heart in mock earnestness. Taiyang sighed before signing the paper. "im going to regret this..." he muttered to himself.

"You and I need to talk, Oz." he stated, pointing at the gray haired, silver eyes man, "Of course." Ozpin nodded, "but first, I suggest you take your daughters home and prepare them for tomorrow. We'll talk after the ruckus dies down." His voice left no room for argument, and Tai huffed a breath of angry air before guiding his girls out of the room.

* * *

"Honestly Ruby, when I left you alone in Vale, I expected you to do something crazy, but seriously?" Yang talked as her sister crammed things into her three bags, left and right, she did however glance at her sister, who was already packed, having applied to beacon and gotten excepted a month in advance, "in the course of two hours, you took on a bunch of dust robbers and got excepted into Beacon almost three entire years early-"

"Hey, two on paper!" Ruby interrupted, and Yang continued,

"now if only you could make a few friends?" A corgi face pillow was promptly thrown at her,

"Yang!" Ruby stared at her, arms crossed and a juvenile frown painted on her face,

"Well it's true..." Yang muttered. Zwei, their tiny corgi woke up, he had been sleeping next to Yang's sitting form, on the Blonde haired girl's bed. He barked as the front door could be heard opening and closing.

The dog then ran out of the room, "guess Qrow's home." Yang observed, and looked to where Ruby was standing, only to find a cloud of rose petals gently falling to the ground. Sighing, she grabbed the broom. Qrow had just walked through the door when a shrill voice assaulted his eardrums,

"UNCLE QROOOOOOOWWWW!" A red rose petal blur attached itself to his arm, "Guess what!" Qrow's frowned, what did his niece do this time? He was about to answer when his scroll beeped, a message from Ozpin. He glanced at it, frowned again, and read the message, whilst the Red blur was still attached to him arm.

"You got accepted into Beacon?" Qrow asked, after reading the message, _right in time Oz..._ Qrow was going to give the man a piece of his mind. "Your no fun..." Ruby muttered, allowing herself to slide off of Qrow's vertical arm, and land with a thud and an "oof."

* * *

October 5th

Two scythes clashed, rose petals scattered on the ground, two combatants rushed forwards, diagonally, backwards, even upwards-in Ruby's case, Qrow was giving his youngest niece her last sparring match with him before she went off to Beacon.

He landed and jumped backwards as Ruby landed and rushed towards him, using the added speed of her riffle's shots and her semblance to reach, and bash, Qrow's scythe with her own.

The man's scythe collapsed into a sword, easily evading her now much larger weapon, and with the back of the weapon, he easily batted her away.

But something was different about this match, he was more out of breath than usual, it was time to finish this. As Ruby, again, launched herself at him, Qrow, with speed that rivaled Ruby's, transformed his sword back, and used its scythe form to nock Ruby off her feet, ending the match.

Qrow put his weapon away as a panting Ruby got to her feet, "nice going kid."

"I.. I was closer... This time!" Ruby gasped excitedly in between breaths, causing Qrow to chuckle.

* * *

"The bullhead's going to take off soon!" Yang yelled at her father as he fussed over Ruby, telling her what to, and what not to do, and giving her last minute advise,

"Don't forget to call me at least once a day,"

Qrow shook his head, telling Ruby to ignore that comment,

"If there are any boys on your team, make a room divider,"

Qrow nodded at that one,

" and don't forget to do your laundry, also don't stay up later then ten on a school night. No all nighters!"

Qrow had to rein him in before the man could keep going. He gave the girls enough time to hug their father, smash Qrow into a death-hold-bear-hug-embrace, and make a beeline for the ship, before Taiyang could change his mind.

"We're on our way." Yang told a speechless Ruby as the bullhead started to take off.

* * *

The bullhead straightened out, and as Ruby ran over to the window in excitement, her sister grabbed her scroll out of the partially red head's hand, before taking out her own. As Yang searched through the settings on both scrolls, Ruby pressed her hands up on the glass, "look, Yang, you can see Patch from here!"

Ruby traced a hand over the glass, "there's Signal" her eyes drew slightly northward of the school on Patch, "and there's our... our home." Ruby's enthusiasm waned a little, as she looked at her home. Yang put both scrolls away and walked over to comfort her sister,

"Beacon's our home now." She said, putting an arm around the young teen,

"Yea... Hey did you figure it out?" Ruby was talking about the scrolls.

Yang shook her head, "I can't figure out how he does it." Yang muttered, just as a boy in somewhat flimsy armor ran past, towards a trash can where he lost his lunch. Unfortunately, the trash can wasn't very far away.

"Ew Yang, you have puke on your shoe!" Ruby jumped away rom her sister in disgust, and Ynag began to jump around in a circle, "Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!" She got closer to Ruby on acident, and the girl jumped even farther back, "Stay away from me! Stay away from me! Stay away from me!"

Yang rushed to the bathroom, leaving Ruby to watch the bullhead draw nearer to a humongous school that she had only seen in pictures. Grand, illustrious, gaping, a whole new world, and Ruby was going to make sure she explored every bit of it.

In the center of the huge buildings and massive walkways, was the CCT Tower, the true Beacon of Vale, and Ruby felt as though she could look at it forever. Yang returned to her side as the bullhead began to sink towards the landing docks. One of the few main access points to the massive school. Yang was completely expecting it when her sister practically screeched, "we're here!" But that didn't make the noise hurt her's, or the many bystander's, ears any less.

The fourteen year old practically dragged her older sister of the bullhead, and stood in awe of the school's students. "Oh my gosh look at that! She has a bow-staff! He has an automatic gun! Look at her swords!"

She started to drift off aimlessly towards different weapons as they passed her. Yang had to pull her back into reality, literally, "Come on Rubes, they're just weapons." She regretted saying _that_ the moment the words left her mouth.

" _Just, weapons?_ They're an extension of ourselves! A part of us, they're so cool!" Yang knew she was digging her own grave,

"aren't you happy with Crescent Rose?"

"Of course! But everyone's weapons are really cool too!"Ruby was still staring at the weapons of other students,

"Then why don't you go make some friends with some of them? The people, not the weapons, you could talk about them?" The eighteen year old suggested. Ruby's face fell,

"why would I have to do that? I've got you?" Yang had to escape this situation, Ruby needed to have friends, it didn't matter that she was basically a high school freshmen being shoved into a a school with seniors and college kids, this kid needed to socialize.

"Well, actually," a group of kids she recognized from Signal passed by, "my friends are here and we're going to hang out got to go see you later, Bye!" The words came out of her mouth as quick as possible, and even though Ruby had no trouble following her, but Yang bolted, making sure to throw off her sister's balance to keep the girl from following.

"Wait, where are you going? Where are we supposed to go? What am I supposed to do?" Ruby gave up on her balance and fell backwards muttering, "Who am I kidding?" What she wasn't expecting was to land on a freakish amount of matching luggage, causing some bags to fly into the air. She cringed when a high pitch voice yelled, "what are you _doing!?"_

"Uhm..." Ruby picked herself up, rubbing her head as the last of the dizziness wore off, "Hey! I'm talking to you! Look!" The mystery pale girl took a bag that had flown a few feet away, opened it, and pulled out a vial of red colored dust, "This is dust, mined and purified..."

The girl was talking, but Ruby just stared at her blankly, wondering if the girl knew she was spreading volatile, explosive dust into the air. And that's when Ruby realized she needed to sneeze. _this is going to hurt..._

"Ah, ah, AH CHOOOO!" Thus was the moment Ruby Rose, a girl soon to be fifteen, passed a another milestone. She had successfully or unsuccessfully, depending how you look at it, exploded; the force of it had caused a large crater, just meters away from the side of the cliff the docks were located on top of.

Sitting inside the crater was the unharmed pale girl, and Ruby Rose, who'd just barely mustered enough protective aura in time. Neither one had noticed the vial fly out of the white clad girl's hand, but Ruby had noticed its absence. "You've got to be kidding me! You dunce! What are you even doing here? You look a little young to be attending a school like this!"

Ruby finally stood up, "uhm well..." She was cut off by the white haired girl, "Honestly, if I'd known this school excepted people like _you_ -"

Ruby interuped her, "Look I'm sorry _princess-"_ but a new voice interrupted her,

"It's heiress, actually." _Heiress? What does that even mean?_ Ruby thought, as she took in the newcomer; she had a bow on her head, meticulously tied and perfectly placed, her cloths sported black and shades of purple, sharply contrasting the pale girl who stood gaping at her.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. The suppliers of dust to the whole world." Pale girl, Weiss, seemed elated at first,

"finally, some recognition-" but it was quickly stamped out,

"The same company notorious for its questionable business decisions, and it's Faunus labor." The Weiss girl looked annoyed, and after exchanging a few words, grabbed the vial of dust from the newcomer, and stomped off.

"I'm sorry!" Ruby yelled after her before turning to thank the other girl.

Who had walked away. "Yea Ruby, go make some friends, it shouldn't be that hard..." Ruby muttered, falling back to the ground, inside the crater. For a minute or two, which meant five or six minutes in Ruby's case, the girl was left to her own devises, laying flat on her back, listening to the birds, well, a crow actually, as she lay in the middle of a crater caused by her own sneeze.

Best day ever. That is until she noticed a rather plain boy, who didn't even really have a traditional color scheme reaching out a hand to her, "Uh, heh, need a hand?" Ruby looked up, and a ghost of a smile graced her lips, as she grabbed the outstretched hand and allowed it to help pull her out of the crater. The next words that came out of her mouth, Ruby would regret forever,

"hey, aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" The two began walking, as Jaune answered,

"I'm never going to live that down am I?"

"No Vomit Boy, I don't think you will." Ruby stated, giving the unnamed boy her own nickname,

"Hey, motion sickness is a very common issue, transportation is much harder, and studies should be conducted to fix this problem-" Ruby had a sneaking suspicion,

"You've never flown on an airship before, have you?" She was right, the kid who was much taller then her looked down in embarrassment,

"No..." The two sunk into an uneasy silence, until Ruby broke it,

"So uh, I've got this thing..." Ruby took out, and unfolded her weapon into scythe form, causing the boy to jump back a little,

"Woah, is that a scythe?"

"It's also a highly customized 42 caliber sniper rifle." Ruby stated, folding it into riffle form,

"A what?" Ruby chambered it,

"It's also a gun." She then unloaded it and put it away.

"Ohh." The conversation stopped and Ruby began scrambling to keep it going,

"So what do you have?"

"Um..." Jaune fumbled with a weapon attached to his belt, "I've got a sword," he pulled a normal looking sword out of its sheath, then took off the sheath and let it unfold, "and a shield..." He inwardly swallowed when he realized he had the girl's undivided attention,

"Ooo, what does it do?" Ruby stared in awe at it,

"Um well," Jaune was scrambling to find a cool use for his weapon, "The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it," he demonstrated, "I can just, put it away..." Ruby thought that was pretty strange, and voiced her question,

"But, doesn't it still weigh the same?" Jaune again looked at the ground,

"Yea it does..." He then looked back at her, "So what's your name?"

"Ruby, Ruby Rose, and yours?" Ruby returned the question,

"Jaune Arc, simple, sweat rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." Ruby had to force herself not to laugh, "Do they?" Jaune shrugged, and sheepishly told her,

"Uhm well, it's what my mom says..."

"Ahh." Ruby looked around at the fountain they were passing by, "So, uh, Jaune, where are we even going?" Jaune looked around in slight panic,

"What? I was following you." That was when a recennt acquaintance of Ruby's walked by,

"Hey! Ms. Glynda! I think we're lost..." The woman sighed, and pointed the two in the direction of the auditorium before continuing there herself. At a much slower pace, just to give the two lost kids some extra time. The duo made it to the auditorium a few minutes before the designated time, causing the two to let out breaths of relief.

A voice called out among the wave of people lining up, Yang, calling to her little sister, "Ruby! I saved you a spot!" Ruby turned to her new friend,

"Oh, that's my sister, gotta go, bye Jaune!" She took off towards her sister, rose petals spreading onto the floor behind her.

"How does she do that?" Jaune muttered, picking up a rose petal off the ground, it was real, soft and delicate.

Ruby made it to her sister, who asked her about any new friends, "What, after you ditched me, and I exploded?"

"Meltdown already?" Yang was beginning to wonder if Ruby's presence at the school was a good thing. that was until, she heard her sister's answer,

"No, I fell into a girls luggage and she yelled at me and there was dust and I exploded and there was a crater, and fire, and lightning, and I think some ice?" Now Yang simply thought her sister was insane, unless,

"Are you being sarcastic?" She asked, hoping to God that she was, "No, I-" Ruby hadn't noticed Weiss sneaking up on her until,

"You!"

"Oh God it's happening again!" The fourteen year old jumped into the safety of her sister's arms as Weiss continued,

"You could've blown us off the side of the cliff!" Realization dawned on poor Yang,

"Oh my God you really exploded." Ruby got off of her sister and waved her hands in front of her,

"It was an accident!" Ruby yelled, just before a pamphlet was shoved into her hands,

"Read this and don't ever talk to me again."

"Umm." Ruby had no words for that, so she just stuck the 'Dust for Dummies' pamphlet into her pocket. The microphone on stage was tapped on, making a binging sound echo throughout the building. It was Glynda, Glynda Goodwitch. First Glynda gave an introduction to the first year students. She then called up Ozpin, introducing him as Professor. After a boring speech, the man walked away from the stage, leaving the students to their own devises.

"well that was a thing..." Yang muttered to Ruby

"It was like he wasn't even there..." Ruby agreed. The man had seemed distant, rehearsed, let he had vacuumed out his own emotions.

That night Ruby sat writing a letter to Qrow, telling him about everything that happened, it was addressed to his classroom at Signal as to not have her father looking at it first. Yang was still messing with the scrolls. After changing a few settings, a Bing was heard from Yangs scroll,

"Hey it's Dad!" Yang tapped on the message, "he says, 'stop messing with the settings on your scroll...'" Yang looked up at Ruby, who shrugged, "I'll never know how he does it!" Yang exasperatedly dropped the scrolls onto her sleeping bag and plopped down next to Ruby, "so, watcha doing?"

"Writing a letter to the gang back at Signal."

It was partially true, Ruby did have one friend at Signal, but a gang was a bit of an overstatement. "Lame!" Yang knew who the letter was for, Ruby only had one friend still at Signal, Uncle Qrow. "So how many friends 'you make today?"

"None." Ruby answered without any thought to it,

"Hey, there's Jaune. See? Plus one friend." Yang tried to be uplifting, but Ruby wasn't having it,

"I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend, back to zero."

"Your impossible." Yang muttered, rolling back onto her sleeping bag in mock sleepiness. Ruby soon looked up and around at her setting,

"hey..." Yang rolled back over,

"what?" Ruby's attention was pointed elsewhere however, and she clarified,

"That girl." It wasn't much of a clarification,

"Elaboration please?" Ruby groaned inwardly, before explaining to her sister,

"She kinda helped me out when I ran into Weiss earlier today."

"Plus two friends!" Yang was up and about faster than you could say semblance, and grabbed Ruby's wrist, easily overpowering her and dragging her over to the mysterious, black clad girl. The girl looked up as they approached, "Hello!" Came the cherry voice of Yang, dragging her struggling little sister behind her,

"uh hi." The girl answered, obviously not much for conversation.

"I believe you've met my sister?"

"Aren't you, the girl that exploded?" Black hair girl turned her attention to Ruby,

"um, hello, I'm Ruby..." Ruby stood awkwardly, still using her sister as a shield from this not so new person,

"and I'm Yang!" A small smile appeared on the girls face, probably from amusement,

"Blake." The girl stated shortly, looking up at the two, no one spoke for a minute or two, but it felt like hours to Ruby.

"Well this is nice..." Yang muttered, looking around for a way out, luckily Ruby started a conversation for once.

"What're you reading?" Blake seemed exited that the girl was interested in the book, most people didn't like reading much anymore,

"Um, a story, about a man, with two souls. Each fighting for control over his body." She knew that she'd weirded the Yang girl out when her only answer was,

"Um okay..." Yang muttered, feeling completely lost as the conversation between the two bookworms continued. After a bit, she interjected, trying to be a part of the conversation, but it somehow ended in a sisterly cat fight.

"Would you be quiet! Some of us are trying to sleep!" Weiss was back, and the moment she noticed Ruby and to a lesser extent, Yang, she yelled, "Oh Not you again!" Sadly this worked against her as Yang yelled the same thing, at the same time.

A yelling dual between Yang and Weiss ensued, and Ruby gave Blake a pleading look, Blake sighed, and blew out her candles. She hoped that would put an end to it, and it did. She heard Ruby whisper, "thank you." Before she continued to read her book, after all, the moon gave enough light, right?

* * *

RWBY

October 6th

Waking up on the floor of the auditorium amidst around a hundred students was a monumental first for Ruby. Seeing a hyperactive 'pink girl' jumping around a 'green boy' was certainly strange, as was seeing the Weiss girl, as well as Blake rush to the bathroom as soon as they woke up, respectively. Yang's spot on the floor, next to Ruby, was empty.

The sleeping bag was gone as well. Letting out a breath of air, Ruby got up and collected her belongings. She walked into the bathroom to find lines of other people. It didn't help that the sink area, was ancient, but updated, and co-Ed because of its ancientcy. After a few hours of aimlessly finding her way to the cafeteria she spotted Yang, "Yang! Where've you been?" Yang, being Yang, was surrounded by her friends, and didn't hear her little sister. Sighing Ruby grabbed a plate.

Cookies. Cookies everywhere. Well not everywhere. But there was a counter filled with them. So, with a plate filled up with strawberries, and piled high with cookies, Ruby sat in the back most corner of the cafeteria.

An empty table just to herself. Well it was empty until Jaune sat down next to her with a plate of waffles, "Hey Ruby." Ruby looked over at him, acknowledging his presence,

"Hi, Jaune." Jaune didn't say anything else, but began to eat his food. Thus the two were content in eating in silence. All was quiet for the two, until Professor Goodwitch's voice was heard over the loud speakers,

"Would all first years please collect your belongings from the auditorium, finish eating, and report to the locker rooms. Initiation will begin in one hour."

With that, the intercom turned off, and the normal noise of a cafeteria continued,

"So what do you think they'll have us do?" Jaune asked, genuinely curious, and Ruby sighed, thinking for a moment before answering,

"My Dad and Uncle were on a team with me and Yang's mom, and a woman named Raven, so I guess we'll get split into teams of four." Jaune looked confused,

"Huh... How do ya think they'll do that?" Ruby shrugged, swallowing a cookie,

"Dunno, Uncle Qrow said the had to navigate a huge system of caves..." She now had Jaune's undivided attention,

"Caves?" Not that she realized it. Ruby just began to explain any question he asked,

"Yea, he said one of the entrances was guarded by an ancient death stalker, and that if you could kill it, you automatically passed."

"Did they?" Jaune looked exited at the prospect, but was quickly shot down by Ruby's answer,

"No, as far as Qrow knows, it's still there..." Jaune looked down at his food,

"Oh... Cool."

"Yup." The two fairly new friends threw away their plates and began the long walk to the locker rooms,

"you know where your going this time, right?" Jaune asked, looking down at the much shorter girl, who smiled and continued walking,

"Nope."

* * *

"... Students will receive one rocket propelled locker for the duration of their stay here at Beacon..." Ruby was only half listening by now, she was walking next to Jaune looking for the locker with a number that matched the one on the paper given to her. She was rudely interrupted from her number-search by Jaune's yell,

"Woah, hey!"

Then the slam of a locker. Ruby looked up just in time to see another first year shove her friend into a locker and press a few buttons, "Hey!" She yelled as the locker took off. Crescent Rose was attached to Ruby's belt, giving the girl an air of confidence as she stood her ground. The boy, at least two years older than her stopped laughing and stood up to his full height. He towered over her and smirked.

"What, do you think your doing?"

Times like these made Ruby hate how high and girly her voice sounded, but looking around, Professor Goodwitch was nowhere to be found. Plus this guy just shoved her friend into a locker and sent it God knows where; minor details, right?

The rest of the first years, excluding Yang, who for the first time that day, realized what exactly her little sister was doing, continued on with their lives.

"Ruby..." Yang stepped forward to stop the girl, but a red-headed girl wearing golden armor stopped her,

"let her do this on her own." Yang had never seen this girl before, but she looked vaguely familiar, so she stopped moving, but continued to watch and see if she should step in. The boy took a step towards Ruby,

"Just who do you think you are, if I had half a mind I'd-" The 4'11" girl deployed her 6'7" scythe and a took a step forward as well, catching the boy off guard,

"wait, what is that?" He asked the young reaper, Ruby smirked,

"A sniper rifle."

"Wait... A what?"

"Its highly customized." Ruby supplemented, waving the 'rifle' in scythe form around nonchalantly, "however, I may have to use it, if you bother my friend ever again." She gave a hand signal that her sister, watching nervously from the sidelines, recognized immediately.

Yang threw the piece of paper with her locker number and combination, she'd already memorized the information anyway, like a frisbee towards her sister who, without looking, moved her 'rifle' slightly, and with a movement of half a foot, sliced the piece of paper in two, moving the 'rifle' back to its earlier position, she sliced the paper again, causing the paper to begin falling towards the floor in four perfectly symmetrical pieces.

The entire endeavor took less then a second, and Ruby still had that infernal smile on her face, the boy she recognized as Cardin, his face however, had morphed into one of horror, "yea, yea, stay away from me, and I'll stay away from you... And your friends."

As he said the word 'friends' he filled all his hate into one gesture, and the boy turned and hurried away, his friends, who had sidelined the whole thing, hurried after him. Ruby reattached a folded Crescent Rose to her belt, and picked up the pieces of paper that belonged to her sister as Yang walked towards her, the red haired girl hung back though, and Yang had regrettably, forgotten about her.

"So you ready for today?" Yang asked as Ruby handed the eviscerated paper back to her and turned to try to open her locker,

"Yup, no more small talk, crescent rose can do the talking now." Ruby finally got her locker open, and looked into the empty space it housed.

"Why don't you at least try meeting new people? Who'll you be on a team with?" Yang asked as Ruby put crescent rose in her locker,

"I'll just be on a team with you, and Jaune, and maybe Blake too."

She seemed so sure of her answer, Yang's heart plummeted at the thought of her sister spending four years at a school and not knowing anyone. Especially considering she'd done that at Signal for seven years.

"But Ruby, you can't grow if you don't meet new people..." Yang played with her hair, a nervous tick of hers that she'd had since she was little.

"My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on a team with me?" Well she got it partially right...

"NO! No, I'm just saying, you should make some new friends, break out of your shell a little-"

"And how to you propose I do that!? It's absolutely-" Ruby was cut off by her friend Jaune returning, gear and all, to the locker room from wherever it was he had been launched off to,

"Ridiculous!"

Both girls stopped and watched in mock horror as he, wearing his gear, continued, "I know my locker shouldn't have that high a number, there's no way I put my gear into this one!" Ruby started towards him to stop him, but Yang grabbed her arm,

"let him figure it out himself..."

In the back of her mind she realized she was mirroring the red-headed girl's words, but at that moment she didn't really care, as the intercom roared to life again,

"would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliffs, initiation will begin in twenty minutes." When Yang's attention returned to Ruby, the girl was gone. She could see her running after Jaune. Yang sighed, and began making her way towards Beacon Cliffs.

* * *

"Well, you are the one who tried hitting on her." Ruby explained to a complaining Jaune. A complaining Jaune who wasn't hearing her side of the argument,

"But it was totally uncalled for!" Ruby shrugged indifferently, it wasn't him that was hurt, it was his ego,

"Confidence isn't everything." Jaune threw his hands downwards in annoyance,

"Now you tell me? So what do they look for?" He seemed genuinely curious, but Ruby was just fourteen, and she had no interest in that sort of thing, she did have a boy of insight though,

"I don't know, my sister says its different for everyone." Jaune changed the subject, probably realizing his ignorance,

"So, are you guys, like, twins or something?"

Ruby was taken back by his suggestion, and stopped walking for a second before continuing on and catching back up to her new friend,

"What no! She's around three years older than me." Jaune seemed surprised, but he didn't comment on it. Ruby and Jaune were walking towards Beacon Cliffs, a relatively short walk for a relatively short talk; either way, the two caught up with Yang just as they arrived.

"All arriving students, please stand on these platforms." Glynda and Ozpin were standing, their backs to the cliff, watching the students arrive. Once all the students arrived, Ozpin began speaking,

"for years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." This was all he said, so Glynda elaborated,

"I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about teams of four, well each of you will be given teammates today." She chose to ignore the red-hooded girl when she screeched

"What!?" In horror and Ozpin, also ignoring her, continued,

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon, so it is best to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

He paused when Ruby Rose groaned again, he had to fight off a smirk as he continued,

"That being said, the first person you meet eyes with after landing, will be your partner, for the next four years." Ruby's horrified,

"WHAT!?" Drowned out the 'pink girl's' words to the 'green boy' and Ozpin continued, thoroughly enjoying the reactions of the first years,

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest, you will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene."

"You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics, each pair must choose a relic and make their way back to the cliff. Your grade will depend on your ability as well as performance, any questions?"

Glynda asked, knowing full and well, they probably wouldn't be answered. Ruby watched as Jaune raised his hand and in a small voice asked,

"yeah, um, sir?" Ozpin either didn't hear him, or, most likely, ignored him,

"Good! Now take your positions." Ruby watched her friend in worry as Jaune looked around in horror before trying again

"uh, sir? I've got a question." Ruby could almost laugh as he didn't notice the students being launched into the air, by the platforms they were standing on,

"about this landing strategy, you're, like, dropping us off or something?" More and more students were launched and Jaune still didn't notice,

"no, you will be falling." Glynda was surprised Ozpin even answered the question. It, however, was getting harder for Ozpin to keep a strait face,

"oh, uh, ok, so did you, like, hand out parachutes?"

Pink girl and green boy got launched, and Jaune still didn't notice, "no, you will use your own skill." Jaune froze, and his eyes widened upon realization of what exactly was going to happen, his terrified yell pierced Ruby's, and, to a lesser extent, Yang's ears,

"Wait, what!?" Yang got launched next to Ruby, and Jaune bagan to silently panic in place, and as Ruby got launched, he got enough courage to ask,

"so what's a landing strate-GYYYYYYYYY-" Jaune had been launched. Ozpin hid his smile by taking a sip of coffee and watching the students fly, and Jaune, spiral...

* * *

Flying through the air wasn't a first for Ruby, her scythe had enough force to let her go airborn when she shot a round, and she was completely ready for landing, until a crow came lazily flying out of nowhere. Ruby crashed into it, and upon realization, screamed,

"BIRDIE! NOOOOOOO!" She managed to free the bird from falling to its doom, and took out her scythe. Firing off a few rounds, Ruby's decent slowed until she was actually going back upwards every time she fired.

Soon she was at the tree line, where she used her scythe to grab onto branches as she landed, in a runners position, scythe curled around behind her. She could hear Jaune screaming, well, until a stab sound was heard, and his, "thank you!" Echoed around the whole forest, along with one of the girls he tried to hit on answering back,

"I'm sorry!" It was probably the red head, she heard from some gossiping kids that her name was Pyrrah, so, she guessed Jaune would be fine. However, the first thought on her mind was, _gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang gotta find-_

"Yang!"

Again she hated her voice, calling out for her sister, in her mind, made her sound like a dying cat,

"Yang!" But the need to find her sister outweighed that,

"Yang!" While running she considered the worst case scenarios, _well there's always, Jaune_ , her own mind berated her for that, _he's nice_ , the beration didn't stop, _he's funny..._ Yea, she agreed with her mind, _I don't think he would do well in a fight though..._

An image of Jaune being eaten by beowolves shot in and out of her mind, and she quickly thought about another person, completely oblivious to the rose petals trailing behind her, _oh yea, there's Blake, so mysterious._ A picture of Blake inching away from her as she tried to talk to her, shot into her head, _but I probably wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with her..._

The petals multiplied as she unconsciously ran faster, scattering themselves on the ground wherever she went, real, soft, VERY out of place rose petals, _okay, who else do I know here... There's Yang, Jaune, Blake, and..._ Someone was ahead of her. Ruby needed to stop, but she was going to fast, she closed her eyes and readied for the impact.

* * *

Weiss was minding her own business and looking for Pyrrah when a rose petal drifted into her view. After landing, she had been alone in a forest, for the first time in her life. More rose petals landed around her, and she looked in the direction they were coming from.

It was that girl in the red hood again, and she was running pretty fast... Rose petals were flying everywhere now, and it slowly dawned on Weiss that this girl had her eyes closed. _She's going to hit me!_ The thought crossed Weiss' mind far too late as the younger girl bowled her over. Rose petals flying and causing a small layer of red to cover them.

"Ah! You dolt! What are you doing, do you know how idiotic it is to run around a forest like that!?" With that Weiss picked herself up, leaving Ruby crumpled on the ground under a layer of... _Rose petals? Roses didn't grow in the forest... Whatever, it didn't matter_. Weiss walked away, there was no way she would partner with that girl.

The forest was much more thick than she previously thought and upon seeing Jaune stuck to a tree, with Pyrrah's weapon sticking to his hoodie, she decided Ruby was the better choice. Sighing she walked back to the girl who was looking at all the rose petals with her arms crossed.

* * *

Ruby heard Weiss walk away, but honestly, if the girl hated her then it was fine with her. She picked herself up and looked in dismay at all the rose petals around her. She crossed her arms wondering if she should pick some of them up, but looking into the direction she had come from, she realized that picking up enough rose petals to make a pathway around two miles long through the forest, was a bad idea.

She was about ready to walk in a different direction, when Weiss came back, Ruby had barely been able to muster a "huh?" As Weiss began dragging her by the hood through the forest,

"your better than barf boy." _Barf?_ Ruby only heard that term from some of the adults and a few of the kids on patch who copied their parents, it sounded weird to her.

"Uh, can you let go of me?" Ruby asked, as she was dragged backwards, she could see that she was still generating rose petals, which was really weird considering she wasn't using her semblance anymore, she'd have to ask Yang about it... Weiss unhanded her, and continued walking,

"you'd better hurry up, if I get a bad grade because of you-"

Ruby hadn't meant to use her semblance again, but the look on Weiss' face was priceless, especially when more rose petals scattered and Weiss realized they were coming from Ruby, in fact it looked like they were generating from her cape,

"see Weiss, I'm not slow, and I can totally fight monsters!" She wanted nothing more than to laugh at the girl as she looked to where Ruby was, to where she was now, but she sensed something in the bushes. Unknown to her, or her teammate, who couldn't see her eyes, her silver eyes flashed briefly before she bolted towards the sound.

She could hear Weiss grumbling about her disappearance, but she was preoccupied. Grimm, tons of them, from her vantage point, she could see them surrounding the spot where she had been, and where her partner currently was. Just a few more seconds...

NOW! she bolted towards the closest Grimm, and slashed it. It tumbled backwards and began to dissipate, "what are you doing!? I could've killed you!?" Weiss' voice brought her back to reality, and she looked at the tree that Weiss was pointing at. It was on flames, and quickly spreading,

"you'll have to try harder than that..." Ruby chambered Crescent, and took an offensive stance, she could feel,the heat of the fire as it began to inch closer, but frankly, she had been in worse situations. Weiss however had other plans, she grabbed the younger girl and ran.

"what are you doing, we could've taken them!" Ruby yelled when Weiss finally stopped running and stood panting,

"well maybe if you hadn't jumped in front of me I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!"

"Hey, at least I can fight on my own!" Ruby fought back, but Weiss wasn't having any of it,

"Who said I can't! Now come on!" She began walking and Ruby let off some steam by slicing her scythe in the direction of a tree, cutting it down in the process.

After walking around in circles for a bit, Ruby sat down as Weiss started walking back and forth,

"it's this way." Weiss' author active, yet extremely bossy, voice stated. Ruby sighed and picked up a leaf,

"No it isn't..." She muttered, and Weiss walked back the other direction,

"I'm kidding its this way," she let the let the leaf fall,

"try going north..." Ruby muttered again, watching Weiss walk west.

"Oh it's not like you know where we are either!" Ruby groaned inwardly,

"No, but I know where we need to go!" Ruby stood up and pointed north,

"Oh really!?"

"Yes! Ozpin said to go north! Why are you so bossy? You don't need to control everything!" Ruby yelled, dealing with this girl was exasperating, and it only continued,

"Oh, shut up, your one to talk!" Ruby groaned, out loud this time before trying again,

"We just need to go north!" She screeched, but before Weiss could answer, a loud cry sounded above then, causing the two to look up. A huge bird, a Nevermore, flew overhead,

"We should ride that thing!" Ruby yelled, and grabbed Weiss' wrist,

"Wait! What!? No, RUBY, WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOOOOIIIINGGGG!" Ruby had used Crescent Rose to launch the two upwards and grabbed onto the talons. The bird was already on its way to attack them anyway.

Luckily for them, having lost sight of its prey, the bird began to head north. "Ruby, this is a terrible idea!" Weiss screamed, holding on for dear life, she looked up at Ruby who seemed... Way to calm for this situation, her answer sold it,

"It's okay, we're fine!" Weiss tried again,

"Ruby, this is a 'horrible' idea!" Ruby, however, was soooo done with this girl,

"Then why don't we just jump!?" Ruby could see the ruins below them so she jumped, she could hear Weiss yell,

"oh you insufferable little red brat!" But Ruby was already falling. She could see her sister and Blake below, so she couldn't use Crescent Rose to stop her fall,

"heads up!" She yelled, and watched Yang look up in horror, until something crashed into her. Rose petals were falling all around the ruins and the few people who were there, and Ruby found herself sitting in a tree,

"hey Ruby..." Jaune was upside down, but before she could question how he got there, a death-stalker burst through the tree line chasing Pyrrah Nikos. Ruby jumped down from the trees as an ursa came running in with pink girl and green boy on its back, the boy yelled the girls name after the Ursa fell and she had disappeared,

"Nora!" He yelled. After landing, Ruby heard Yang, ask,

"Ruby?" She looked up at her sister,

"Yang!" The pink girl jumped between the two sisters and yelled,

"Nora!" a slightly annoyed Green boy came running up and stood panting, out of breath as Nora stated,

"Ren." as Jaune yelled,

"Pyrrah!" When she got tossed like a rogdoll towards the strange group of kids,

"THAT'S IT!" Yangs eyes turned red, and her hair caught on fire, "would everybody just shut up for two seconds before something crazy happens again!?" Two seconds of Nora humming and Ren catching his breath as Pyrrah picked herself up, passed by, and Ruby tugged on her older sister's sleeve,

"uh, Yang?"

"What!?" She yelled, and looked down at her sister, who pointed upwards. Everyone, minus Jaune, who was still in the tree, looked up just as the bird circled around them,

"how could you leave me!?" Weiss was still on the Nevermore's talons,

"I said jump!" Ruby yelled up to her, and Blake muttered,

"she's going to fall..."

"She'll be fine." Ruby assured them, just as Weiss lost her grip on the Nevermore,

"she's falling." Ren deadpanned. The group watched as Jaune jumped out of the tree, grabbed Weiss, then they both fell to the ground. Meanwhile the deathstalker began running towards the group.. When Jaune and Weiss reached the others, Yang, always one for sarcasm, stated,

"great! The gangs all here. Now we can all die together!" Rose petals scattered as without a word, Ruby raced towards the deathstalker, and bounced off of it...

"Ruby!" Yang yelled as the Nevermore pinned the girl with a spray of feathers, and the deathstalker went in for the kill.

Glyphs materialized and Weiss zoomed towards the deathstalker, and froze its deadly tail before it could kill the fourteen year old. "You are so childish!" Weiss yelled as Ruby opened her eyes, "and hyperactive. And don't even get me started on your fighting style." Ruby stared up at Weiss, as the girl began to walk away, "And I suppose, I can be a bit, difficult. So how about we stop fighting and showing off, and work together?"

"I'm not trying to show off." Ruby stated quietly, causing Weiss to stop walking, "I just want to prove that I can do this." Weiss sighed to herself, and turned to look at Ruby, still pinned to the ground by the feather,

"your fine." She stated, and removed the seven foot tall feather from the girl's cape. Weiss walked away, leaving Ruby to look around the wall of ice, to see the rest of the death stalker, struggling to free itself from the ice-wall,

"woah..." Ruby whispered.

"Ruby!" Yang wrapped her sister in a death hug and yelled, "are you okay!?"

"Yea, yea, I'm fine." Ruby answered, brushing off her combat skirt,

"We need to go!" Pyrrah yelled, watching the Nevermore circle back again, "we don't need to fight these things." She said gently, as she joined Yang in front of Ruby, the rest of the group joining up behind her.

"Yea," Jaune added, "we just need to get the relics and get back to the cliff." Once every pair had retrieved a relic, the group took off running,

"where do you think all these ruins come from?" Ruby absentmindedly asked as she ran alongside Ren, who just shrugged in return. They came across an ancient bridge, and bolted across, towards an ancient complex built in the middle of a canyon. The Nevermore came and destroyed the bridge, scattering the group, three back to the main land, and the rest onto the complex. Jaune looked over to where Pyrrah, Ren, and Blake were fighting the deathstalker on the other side of the ravine,

"we need to get over there, they need help!" He yelled at Nora, who smiled,

"let's go then!"

"But I can't make that jump!" If it was possible, Nora's smile got even bigger, and in one swift motion, she knocked Jaune back, and used her hammer to slam down on the edge of the broken bridge. She effectively created a catapult, and while she and Jaune flew to the other side of the ravine, Ruby slashed at the Nevermore when it got too close, after a few seconds, she saw Blake jump up onto the complex, how she'd gotten over to this side was a mystery to Ruby.

Weiss landed next to Ruby, yang and Blake on her other side, the group let off a torrent of dust filled, long range, attacks, all of witch barely did anything to the Nevermore, "none of this is working." Weiss stated as Yang jumped up and fired rounds into the bird's mouth.

Ruby looked around, and watched the group, looking for ideas. Blake had a stretchy ribbon, Weiss had glyphs, Ruby had speed, Yang had strength... "I've got a plan."

"Better be good." Weiss answered, but all she got back was,

"cover me!" And the girl ran to go fill in the other two girls. In swift motions, Blake threw part of her weapon towards Yang as the yellow girl landed from bashing the Nevermore towards the cliff, Yang caught it, and the two girls pulled it taught. Weiss was waiting for the Nevermore by the cliff, and when it crashed, she froze its tail in one place before hurrying towards the line of stretchy ribbon.

She reached it just as Ruby landed on it with her scythe. As the ribbon stretched towards Weiss, she created a glyph to keep it in place, "of course you would come up with a plan like this!" She stated, as she aimed the glyph towards the Nevermore as it struggled,

"Can you make the shot?" Ruby asked, staring intently at the bird, Weiss sighed and in a voice filled with sarcasm, she reiterated the question,

"can I?" She never expected Ruby to take it seriously, "can you?" Weiss couldn't believe her ears, but there wasn't much more time, the bird could break free of the ice any second now,

"Of course I can!" Without letting Ruby get anymore words in, Weiss watched the glyph turn red from the other girl's semblance, before releasing it. A shower of rose petals flew everywhere as Ruby flew towards the Nevermore, shooting rounds every so often to make herself go faster. Her grabbed the bird by the throat as she landed on the side of the cliff.

Glyphs of pure white appeared in a line from under her feet to the top of the cliff, they turned red as soon as Ruby touched them, and soon she, and her insane amount of rose petals flew upwards towards the top of the cliff, the glyphs not only helping her stay on the cliff, but when she touched them with her semblance, helping her to go even faster.

She reached the top, and with a good portion of her strength, heaved crescent rose around and decapitated the Grimm. It's head landed next to her as its body fell back down the side of the cliff. Rose petals began to pile up, making a carpet in a two to three meter ring around her.

She looked down the cliff to see not only Yang, Blake, and Weiss looking up at her, but also Pyrrah, Jaune, Ren, and Nora looking up at her as well. She was on the cliff, she'd reached the top. She had her relic so she and Weiss had passed. Now how were they going to get everyone else up the cliff?

* * *

It turned out they only needed to make it to the cliff, not up it... Oh well, Ruby laughed inwardly. It was priceless to see the look on Glynda Goodwich's face when they'd come to collect the eight kids, only to find the youngest already at the top. As it turned out, Ren, Nora, Jaune and Pyrrah were all on one team, Jaune was officially the leader of team JNPR, pronounced Juniper.

Ruby hoped he didn't royally mess anything up. When Ozpin called out Ruby and her teammates, she shared a smug look with her sister, as the girl sighed in defeat. It turned out that she would be on a team with her sister for four years. Who had the last laugh now Yang? Her joy turned into confusion when she was named leader of team RWBY, and she stared at Ozpin, questioning him with her gaze.

His face, though looking straight at her, gave her no answer on why she was named leader of a bunch of kids almost three years older then her. Then again, even if she was ready to apply to beacon, she had skipped a grade, fourth grade to be exact... Students entered Signal in third grade. Third grade was the year for learning what kind of weapons worked best with you.

Because Ruby couldn't find a weapon other than a rifle that worked for her, her uncle had helped her build a scythe to try. The scythe had worked perfectly, and was the only one in the school.

So instead of working to build her weapon in fourth grade and learning to use it that year as well, Ruby had accidentally crammed learning how to use any weapon, as well as making her own, into the span of a year. The school had agreed that they couldn't just hold her back so she would be the same exact age as her peers, so she had gone from third to fifth grade at the end of the year.

So Ruby found herself two years ahead of her peers but three years ahead of people her age. And it didn't help that student had ranging ages at this school. She'd seen a few first year that couldn't be any younger then at least twenty, and that was stretching it. Some looked boarder line thirty, witch was weird, but kind of cool in a Ruby, the youngest kid in the entirety of Beacon was named leader of a team that shared her name. She was ready for a year of confusion.


	2. The Not so Everyday Life of Team RWBY

A/NL: Welcome back! This chapter takes up what used to be chapters 5-8. Enjoy!

* * *

RWBY

Wednesday October 7th

As long as Ruby could remember, she'd always woken up at the crack of dawn. She had heard stories about her waking up family members at 5:30 in the morning screaming, "Mommy! Wake up! The sun is up, it's a new day!" She'd stopped waking other people up after her mom had died, but she still woke up. It was a curse really, never being able to sleep in, no matter how late she stayed up the night before.

This day was no different. Six o'clock, and Ruby was up and about, she never needed an alarm to get up. She got ready for the day, then she woke Yang up, then Blake. As the two got dressed, she tried waking up Weiss.

Seven o'clock, and Ruby had fished out a whistle from her sister's bag, and just as Weiss started to wake up, not that Ruby noticed, she blew the whistle. Successfully waking up the jet lagged girl.

"What are you doing!?" Weiss screeched, looking up at Ruby, who giggled as Weiss picked herself off of the ground,

"mornin'!" Ruby skipped away to the other side of the room, leaving Weiss, to look over at Blake and Yang. Blake looked just as lost, but Yang looked ready to burst out laughing. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Weiss got up and stole away to the bathroom.

"So, classes don't start till nine, any ideas?" Yang asked, sitting on her bed, Blake picked up a suitcase laying near the door,

"well we do still have to unpack." The suitcase was Ruby's and three days before, she had crammed as much as possible into three of them. This suitcase was the most stuffed. As such, when she held it by the handle, the clasp opened, and everything in it, pillows, headphones, music disks, Grimm figurines, all fell to the floor, creating a pile that looked like it was impossible to fit back into the case.

"And clean..." Blake muttered, looking down at the mess in disbelief, before looking up at Ruby. Ruby was blushing and staring at her pile of things,

"little to much?" She asked Yang, who nodded,

"yeah, little too much." Yang affirmed.

"So I guess we unpack." Ruby stated, before disappearing in a cloud of rose petals. Everyone looked at Yang as Ruby's things started to disappear and reappear on shelves and things, at on point the door opened and rose petals showered the hallways before coming back, the door being left open, and shelves appeared, quickly being filled with nicknacks,

"is this normal?" Blake asked, bending down and picking up a rose petal,

"yeah... I'm going to go find a broom..." Yang left the room, and Blake and Weiss began to unpack and put away their belongings. Being sure to stay out of the way of the little, red blur.

A half an hour later, the four girls were done unpacking. And the beds were in a pile in the middle of the room.

"This isn't working..." Ruby muttered, looking at the pile, courtesy of Yang,

"maybe we should get rid of some stuff?" Yang looked down at her sister who's eyes lit up as an idea came to her,

"BUNK BEDS!" She yelled, Weiss looked up in confusion,

"Bunk, beds?"

"Yeah! Yang yelled, pumping a fist into the air,

"let's do it!"

"Sounds fun." Blake put in, however, Weiss was less then enthusiastic, looking around the room in horror before fixing her eyes on her leader,

"it sounds incredibly dangerous. We should vote on it." Ruby looked at her team as a whole,

"I think we just did." She laughed, and Weiss groaned, she should've known that argument wouldn't work with a Hyperactive Ruby. So the group got to work.

Where Ruby found the rope, Weiss didn't want to know, how it got attached to the ceiling a over her bed was also a mystery to her. Luckily, the silver eyes dunce wasn't jumping on it anymore... Either way, Weiss knew that her bed had essentially become a death trap.

Looking over at Yang and Blake's side of the room, their bed looked a lot more stable. And balanced... Either way, it was done. Yang grabbed the broom she had found and shoved it into Ruby's hands,

"our carpet isn't made of rose petals, and I'm not cleaning them." Yang stated, as her sister looked at the broom.

"Fine..." Ruby muttered, grabbing the contraption.

* * *

Weiss just happened to look at the clock, "class starts at nine, right?"

"Yup." Ruby answered, as she swept the last of the rose petals into a pile, there was a beat of silence before,

"it's eight fifty-five, you dunce!" Weiss took off running out the open door, vaguely noticing team JNPR peak out of their door. Ruby watched her in confusion for a moment before realization dawned on her, "uh... To class!" Ruby yelled, as she, and her remaining teammates ran out the door, being joined by a panicked team JNPR.

Team JNPR was having a very relaxing morning, well as relaxing as having Nora around can get. The girls had taken over the left side of the room, and the boys had taken the right. Pyrrah was putting away her cloths, Nora was snoring, Jaune was messing around with his weapon, and Ren, Ren was looking at the schedule,

"Introductory class is at nine." He'd told them, not that anyone besides Pyrrah listened. The girl had tried multiple times to wake up Nora, but Ren had told her it was a bad idea.

At around 8:12 Ruby had nocked on their door asking if they had any rope, Pyrrah gave the girl some. Why Pyrrah had rope, Ren didn't dwell on, but Ruby seemed satisfied and left. This event had succeeded in waking the strawberry red head, but, what really worried Ren was the sounds of a hammer coming from the room across the hall, team RWBY's room to be exact.

"What do you think they're doing in there?" Jaune had questioned at around eight thirty, but no one had an answer for him. At around eight fifty, yelling could be heard, and a high heeled feet taking off down the corridor, the whole team peeked out in time to see Weiss run out of her room, yelling,

"it's eight fifty five, you dunce!"

"What's she talking about Ren?" Nora whispered, but Ren was staring after Weiss,

"CLASS!" He yelled, and bolted after her just as RBY ran out of the room as well.

"Class?" Jaune asked, as Nora ran after him, Pyrrah suddenly looked panicked and grabbed his arm and started running,

"Class starts as nine!" She clarified for him.

* * *

Running towards the building was a good wake up exercise in Blake's mind, how Weiss was running in high heels was also a question at the forefront of her thoughts, the white dressed girl was keeping up with Ruby, who for the sake of her friends, refrained from using her semblance. The group burst into the classroom, signed the attendence paper, and slammed into the nearest empty seats they could find, just as the late bell rang,

"We made it!" Jaune breathed from where he was sitting, in between Ruby and Cardin. When he realized just where he was sitting, he groaned inwardly. This would be a long class.

Classes in Beacon were scheduled by the teacher, multiple classes with the same topic were held every day, sometimes on multiple days. The students had a schedule for when they could take a certain class, mainly there are three times a day that you can go to a lecture, the schedule for a whole week is given in a mandatory homeroom that is scheduled every Monday.

Some classes only have one time, others can have up to seven. The student chooses the class, and the times they take the class, there is no fixed schedule. Every student receives a full schedule of every class, every lecture, for every teacher in the beginning of the semester, these are usually subject to change however.

Students are in charge of cataloging this own attendance, usually located on the teachers desk, before the class they are to take. If your grades suffer, but you have perfect attendance, teachers will become suspicious. There were mandatory and optional classes, marked accordingly on the schedule. To Ruby this seemed fairly confusing, but all her teammates seemed to understand it perfectly, and by the end of the day, she too had gotten the hang of it.

She found herself in her last mandatory class of the day, history. History was never her favorite subject, but she had been in advanced classes on history at Signal, and frankly, the topic of Grimm taught her nothing new. So she was stuck in a class for two hours, learning nothing.

So she began to doodle. First small drawings of Grimm. Then the teacher, then a cartoonish version of the teacher. Next she was making speech bubbles, and that was when she heard,

"I do sir!" From next to her. Looking over to her right hand side, she saw Weiss, shaking in anger, with her hand raised.

"Ms. Schnee, very well, please change into your combat gear and join me down here." Weiss nodded and left the classroom. Ruby gave Yang a questioning look, but Yang just shrugged.

"Please converse amongst yourselves until Ms. Schnee returns." With that the man turned and began to unfold a ladder to retrieve his weapon, hung high up on a wall above his lecture boards.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked her sister,

"Dunno, guess we'll find out." Yang absentmindedly answered her sister, she was watching in amused interest as the professor lost his balance on the ladder.

Looking over at Blake, Ruby saw the older girl drawing on a triangular piece of paper she'd attached to a Popsicle stick. Blake loved history, she loved it so much that she knew she wouldn't learn anything in this class. Therefore she was planning on testing out of the class as soon as possible.

Nothing Ruby could do, So she went back to doodling. This time she was playing around though. First she drew cat ears, the she drew them on Grimm, then on Zwei, the on a bird, then on each of her team members. However, before she could wonder why they looked so natural on Blake, Weiss, in her combat gear, returned to the classroom.

"Are you ready, Ms. Schnee?" The professor, weapon in hand, asked the girl from where he stood, weapon in hand, next to a heavily reinforced cage.

"Yes sir!" Weiss answered, and took out her weapon. The professor slammed his weapon into the door of the cage and it burst open. A boarbatusk rolled out and began to attack the heiress. Weiss dogged at the last moment, and the Grimm slammed into the desk area.

"Go Weiss!" Yang yelled, pumping the air with her fist, Blake waved her finished flag,

"fight well." She added, Ruby was exited to see a fight and she yelled,

"yea, do well for team RWBY!"

"Ruby, shut up!" Weiss yelled at Ruby, and the girl shrink back and sat quietly for the reminder of the class, instead, doodling roses and petals.

Ruby really didn't take being yelled at in front of multiple people very well. Weiss returned to the battle before her. Ruby glanced up every so often to see her teammate's progress, after a few minutes of watching Weiss struggle, Ruby finally decided it was okay to giver her teammate some advise,

"hey Weiss, aim for its belly, there's no armor underneath!"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Ruby cringed, she didn't realize she was being bossy, maybe she shouldn't give advise to people... She looked back down at her doodles, and didn't look up again, even when she heard its dying scream as Weiss drover her rapier into its stomach area.

When the bell rang, and the students began filing out of the class, some to go to other classes, others to go spend free time elsewhere. Weiss walked out of the classroom with an air of smugness about her gait.

"Hey Weiss, what did I do?" Ruby had run after her, leaving rose petals to flutter to the classroom floor in an effort to catch up with her partner, who turned around angrily.

"What didn't you do? This whole class you haven't even played any attention, you've just drawn stupid pictures!"

"But Weiss I-" But Weiss wouldn't let her explain her multitasking, yes, it was drawings, and yes they seemed silly, and some of them were just that, but others... She didn't realize that in Weiss' mind, Ruby hadn't payed any attention at all, and it was driving the pale girl insane, This immature child wasn't fit to lead an entire team, and Weiss voiced her anger,

"No, don't say it, you shouldn't be leader, how old are you even?" Now that she thought about it, Ruby did look a lot younger than every one else,

"Uh, um well..." Ruby's lack of an answer made her even more suspicious, "How old!?" She practically yelled the words, what she got back was almost a whisper,

"Um, fourteen?"

"What!? Why are you even here? How can you even expect to be on the same level with anyone, let alone Grimm!" Weiss was astounded, how did this girl even get here? She was mad, angry even, she'd worked so hard but this girl, she just got a free pass!

"But in the fore-" Ruby tried to reason with something that couldn't be reasoned with, it wouldn't work, and Weiss just proved it,

"DUMB LUCK!" Weiss stomped away, and Ruby turned to trudge back to her dorm, materializing rose petals being a telltale sign that she was about to activate her semblance. But she never got the chance, after a few steps she bumped into someone, she really must not have been paying attention to anything,

"Oh, sorry..." She looked up at the person to find, "Professor Ozpin?"

The headmaster didn't answer her, but she did take it as a chance to ask a question, "Is Weiss right? Was it luck? Am I not supposed to be team leader?" Ozpin seemed to think for a moment before answering,

"Personally, I do not believe in luck. I believe everything happens for a reason, and we all have our own trials to get to, all to make us stronger."

"But-"

"Ms. Rose, I made you leader of your team not just to help you grow. Everyone on your team will grow from this outcome, one must learn to lead in order to follow, and to follow, one must know what it is like to lead." With that, Ozpin took a sip from his coffee, and walked away. Ruby watched him leave, before returning to her dorm.

Blake was already there, but Yang was attending an extra sparring class, "hey wanna make flags?" Blake asked, looking up from her book as her dejected team leader entered through the open door,

"Naw..." Ruby muttered and easily jumped up to her death trap bed, "hey, can you hand me my history book? I'm going to get my homework done."

"Wait, we had homework?" Blake asked in surprise as she grabbed Ruby's book and handed it to her.

"Yea, a five paragraph summary on pgs. 1-10." Ruby opened her book and the two sat in peaceful silence. Well Ruby ignored Blake as the panicked girl searched in vain for her history book.

* * *

Ruby didn't remember falling asleep, she'd gotten her homework done, and just drifted off. So you can understand her confusion when she woke up to Weiss shaking her lightly, "uh, weiss, I-" Weiss stopped her from apologizing,

"Look Ruby, maybe we got off on the wrong hand, but, as long as you do your best, I'll try to be the best teammate I can be, okay?" Ruby stared up at her teammate, the girl was angry with her just hours before, but now...

"Uh, okay." Ruby agreed, maybe it would turn out okay after all.

"By the way, you really shouldn't sleep on your books." Weiss disappeared, and the sheet covering Ruby's bed fell back in place. _Well that was weird..._ Ruby thought as she gathered her books and dropped them off the bed,

"Don't throw your books you dolt!" Ruby cringed,

"Uh, sorry?"

* * *

October 8th

"So, Rubes, how many classes you gotta do today?" Yang asked, jumping down from her bed, carefully balanced on some of Blakes many books, Ruby was looking at her schedule,

"leader's extra-curricular, History, geography, sparring, and I want to take a weapons workshop before lunch."

"Weapons geek..." Weiss came out of the bathroom in time to put in her thoughts.

"At least I made my own weapon." Ruby argued, "what classes are you guys taking?" She then asked, before Weiss could bite back a retort.

"Geography, Faunus-Human-relations lecture, sparring..." Blake spoke up, she was on her bed reading.

"Advanced Dust applications, Vale-historical-government-lecture, sparring, and advanced calculus." Weiss seemed proud of her chosen classes. Yang just seemed board by her's,

"Algebra, Geography, that human Faunus thingy, and," she perked up a bit at the last one, "as many sparring classes as Goodwitch'll let me participate in." She finished with a smile, before looking at the clock,

"Hey it's almost eight," Ruby froze, and looked back down at the schedule, "gotta go, bye!" Petals flew as she bolted, leaving behind her schedule in a cloud of rose petals,

"Weiss' turn!" Yang yelled, referring to the rose petals, and ran out after her sister,

"Hey!" Weiss yelled, but Blake spoke over her,

"they're almost late for geography." She stated, before thinking aloud, "hope that doesn't become a habit."

"what's with these rose petals anyway?" Weiss asked, changing the subject as she grabbed a broom. Blake picked up a rose petal off of her bed and looked away from her book to examine it,

"more importantly, why are they real? Matter can't be created from nothing."

"probably part of her semblance." Weiss dismissed it, but Blake still questioned the Rosy phenomenon,

"Well it's definitely part of her aura, but I don't know about her semblance, it'd have to be really strong to make these" Weiss swept the rose petals into a pile,

"well she could barely protect herself from an explosion she created on her first day here, so her aura can't be that strong." She began to collect the petals into a plastic bag,

"It probably is, remember, she skipped two years at Signal, and the last three years deal with aura; semblance, protection, and offensive use. She skipped the last two, she might not know how to use her aura like that." She looked over at Weiss with a mischievous smile on her face, "And you had something to do with that explosion to as I recall."

"Yea, yea..." Weiss muttered, throwing the bag away.

* * *

Lunch rolled around and teams RWBY And JNPR found themselves sitting together. Nora was talking about a, frankly terrifying, dream she'd had, Ren was correcting her as he and Blake read their own books, and everyone else was either listening to Nora, or on a completely different topic with someone else.

"There's a sparring class in ten minutes, we should all go so we can spar each other." Ruby was speaking to Jaune, who agreed with her.

"Then BOOM!" Nora slammed both her hands on the table, drawing everyone's attention to her,

"The whole village exploded!"

"Just the house..." Ren put in, with out looking up from his book. The bell rang before anyone could ask for an explanation,

"To sparring!" Ruby yelled and disappeared in a cloud of rose petals. Jaune, caught off guard, yelled,

"Uh, to sparring!" And followed her out of the room. Upon entering the sparring room, Glynda raised her eyebrows at the sight of the two teams running into the room right as the warning bell signaled,

"Students, you do realize, there was no need to run." She watched the rose petals settle around Ruby, as the girl sheepishly scratched the back of her head, "Ms. Rose, is it possible for you to control these, petals?"

"Uhhhhhhh..." Ruby scratched the back of her head, trying to find an answer, "Is it?" The woman asked again, "I could when I was younger..." Behind Ruby's back, the huntress saw Yang Xiao Long, the girl's half sister was making a cutting motion with her hand, Glynda begrudgingly took the hint, and changed the subject, "Very well, please take your seats, class will begin shortly."

The students found seats as other people began to fill in the room. "Okay class, who would like to spar first?" Thanks to her semblance, Ruby's hand shot into the air, and Glynda nodded, motioning for her to come down, "please go change into your gear while I find you a partner." Ruby nodded and disappeared in a cloud of rose petals,

"And please stop doing that?" Glynda called after her, knowing full well it was useless. She trned back to address the rest of the class, "Alright anyone willing to spar Ms. Rose?" A hand rose into the air,

"I do."

"Very well, please go change into your gear as well." After the boy had left, Glynda addressed the class, "okay class, you all know how these matches work, please refrain from any crude comments, we had an, incident due to that yesterday," she gave a pointed look at Yang,

"Anyone for the next match?" After a few matches had been decided upon, Ruby and her challenger had both returned, "Ruby Rose, Cardin Winchester, do you both agree to the rules of this match?" Nods came from both participants, and Glynda blew her whistle. The match had begun.

* * *

Ruby stood, her scythe curled around her back as Cardin circled her. She didn't bother turning to face him. He lunged at the girl from behind, but she disappeared in a cloud of petals, whirling and spinning, disorientating Cardin as they flew around him in circling patterns. Faster and faster. Petals began to cover the floor.

Crescent Rose came flying out of the red flurry, Cardin just barely blocked it, and the weapon disappeared back into the circling cloud. It got thicker and thicker, and Cardin thrust his mace into it, but he only met rose petals. They thrust him off balance and Crescent Rose came flying back at him, he couldn't block it this time, and he flew backwards through the petals, his aura diminished by a fifth.

The petals scattered, their spinning motions stopped after he burst through them, causing a small, flower filled explosion. Ruby materialized, her cape fluttering as rose petals generated from it. Her scythe curled in front of her in an offensive position, as Cardin picked himself up and brushed off rose petals.

"That all you got, little girl?" He asked, taking offensive stance as well. Thirty seconds had passed. Ruby smiled, and then disappeared in rose petals again, running and swirling, constant motion, confusing patterns, she stopped, but her previous speed caused the petals to continue. While Cardin was distracted, her scythe collapsed into sniper form, and she took aim. The blast of dust hit perfectly, right in the back, causing half of Cardin's remaining aura to deplete. Twelve more seconds had passed.

"That was dirty!" Cardin yelled, running towards her in anger, each time he reached her, she easily evaded him, she let his aura deplete from exhaustion for five seconds. Forty-seven seconds had passed. Cardin had less then a fourth left, Ruby hadn't lost any aura.

She moved in to finish the fight. One swift motion, she rammed the back of her scythe into the back of his legs, when he fell, the remainder of his aura depleted, she spun her scythe and it stopped at his throat, just a few seconds before the whistle blew. Fifty-two seconds.

"Well done miss Rose." Glynda walked onto the ring as Ruby backed away from Cardin.

"Dumb luck..." Cardin muttered, and Ruby smiled,

"I've been getting that a lot lately."

"Mr. Winchester, as your aura has been completely depleted, you are not allowed to participate in a sparring class until it has reached sixty percent." A groan was heard from the team leader of CRDL, as the two combatants made their way back to the elevated benches. "Nice one Rubes!" Yang hugged her sister, Blake didn't say anything, she did however, hand Ruby a team RWBY flag. "Good going." Weiss said, matter of factly as Ruby sat down next to her.

"Will the next two combatants please make there way to the floor?" Glynda called, and Pyrrah stood up, as well as an older student. "So Ruby, where'd you get the idea to use rose petals?" Yang asked, watching Pyrrah and the older male student walk over the thick carpet of petals spread across the arena floor.

"Professor Goodwitch actually helped me think of it." Ruby shrugged, and Weiss looked over skeptically as the match started,

"She did? How?"

"When she asked me if I could control them, I realized that I used to be able to, so I wondered, if I couldn't control them anymore, maybe I could use them." Blake looked up from the match going on below,

"Why can't you control them anymore?" Yang caught her eye after she asked, and gave Blake a warning look. Ruby however, obliviously shrugged,

"Dunno, don't even know why they're even a thing..."

From behind Ruby, Yang made cutting motions with her hands to Blake and Weiss, who took the hint. Pyrrah won the match, she only lost a fourth of her aura against a second year student. "Well done Ms. Nikos." After a few more matches, Glynda looked at the time, "alright we have time for one more match, anyone willing to go for it?" Ruby's hand shot up, and Glynda nodded, inwardly sighing in the process, "anyone willing to go against miss Rose?"

A third year student raised his hand, "are you sure? Mr Akira, this is a first year student, do you really want to have an all out match with her?" The boy, Asoka Akira, nodded,

"The girl's strong, I want to see how long she can go." Glynda nodded,

"Miss Rose, are okay with this arrangement?" A swift nodd,

"Yes'm!"

"Very well, please enter the ring." The two made their way to the arena, and Asoka introduced himself,

"Name's Asoka, you don't go easy on me, I won't go easy on you?" It was a common saying, to put yourself on equal grounds with someone of whom you wanted to test the skills.

"Name's Ruby, and I won't." Was her reply. Asoka smiled, and they both took up stances inside the petal filled arena. The third year's weapon consisted of a double sword, it could attach and detach for dual wielding. He took up a stance with the swords attached, one blade on top, another on bottom. The weapon was in front of his torso, in contrast to Ruby, who practically stood on the back of her scythe. The whistle blew.

Asoka lunged and Ruby shot a round, flinging herself into the air. A disorientated Asoka quickly backed away to the other side of the arena as rose petals showered down from where Ruby had launched herself. He was too slow however, as the red reaper flew at him in a flurry of rose petals.

A ninth of his aura depleted in the first attack, a sixteenth with every other. In a fluid motion, Asoka spun his dual sword and swatted her away, cutting out a tenth of her aura before going on offensive. Every time the young man thought he found an opening, the girl would twist her scythe in an unimaginable way and block him while simultaneously causing damage to her attacker.

The simple explanation was that she blocked with the blade of Crescent Rose before spinning it and cutting in a small hit. Thirty-five seconds had passed, Ruby's aura was slightly above half, Asoka's aura was slightly below. Ruby had jumped to the left end of the ring, Asoka to the right. Five seconds of no movement.

Ruby disapeared in a flash of rose petals, the ones left on the ground from her last dual fluttered into the fray as well. Soon the whole ring was ablaze with a blizzard of petals, Asoka couldn't tell where Ruby was. Ruby could though. The Sniper took aim from the opposite side of the ring.

Asoka heard the shot, he turned in time to block most, but not all of it. The petals settled. Fifty-two seconds had passed, Ruby just above half, Asoka teetering around thirty. He caught his breath from the attack, just in time to see the red caped blur coming at him. Her scythe rammed itself into him, flinging him out of the ring, and depleting his aura to nineteen percent. Below twenty, she had won. The time was sixty-five seconds when the whistle blew. Asoka stood up as Ruby put away her scythe, "Nice going kid."

He shook the girl's hand, and the bell rang, "not every day can a first year beat a third year, your what, sixteen?" Ruby shrugged as Asoka walked her back to her team, "fourteen actually..." She stated quitely, not sure how he would respond, "Amazing, your pretty good Ruby. Spar me again sometime, one day I'll beat you." He gave a friendly wave before walking off,

"I will!" Ruby yelled, astounded that the boy hadn't taken his loss very hard, it felt pretty good.

* * *

"Don't touch that!"

"Okay, okay..."

"Ruby I mean it!" Weiss yelled, smacking her partner's hand away from the cookie batter,

"Hey I'm sorry, but it looks so-"

"And that's why your not allowed to make cookies without adult supervision anymore." Weiss cut the girl off before she could reach across the kitchenette again, Ruby folded her arms and looked around the room,

"and your an adult?"

"No, but I am old enough to drink." Drinking ages varied on remnant, eighteen in Vacuo, sixteen in Vale, fifteen in Atlas, and a whopping twenty-one in Mistral. Ruby folded her arms in indignation, and answered in a proud voice,

"Oh I could tell you a story or two." Weiss froze in her baking preparations,

"what?" She asked, looking at Ruby in stark shock,

"Well when Yang turned sixteen, I was twelve, so my Dad and Uncle decided it'd be okay." Ruby shrugged like it was a normal thing, swatting Nora away as the red-head snuck up behind her and made a grab for the chocolate chips,

"Ren and I never did stuff like that." Nora cut in, and Ruby shrugged,

"yea, you shoulda seen them give us the talk..."

"The what?" Nora asked, looking thoroughly confused, Weiss also gave the girl a strange look. Luckily Pyrrah had walked into the common area just in time to hear the last few parts of the conversation,

"so you're making cookies?" She tried to fix a conversation quickly going downhill, and luckily it worked,

"yeah!" Ruby turned back to the ingredients, "but Weiss won't let me have any of the chocolates..."

"Well I'm sure a few would be okay," Pyrrah cut in, coming up to the counter and opening the bag of chocolates, "just a few," she took out five, and put them into Ruby's hand,

"oo oo, me too!" Nora was practically bouncing in excitement, so Pyrrah gave her two, and the strawberry-red-head bounced away in the direction of the couch.

"Pyrrah!" Weiss whined as the girl put the bag down,

"what? Oh, I'm sorry did you want some?" Pyrrah asked, looking genuinely apologetic,

"No, you just gave someone with a speed semblance sugar!" Pyrrah looked at Ruby who happily bounced up and down on her toes,

"oh..."

* * *

"Yay cookies!" Ruby yelled as Pyrrah took the cookies out of the oven. It tuned out Weiss had never baked before in her life, and Ruby, Ruby shouldn't be allowed to make toast... so Pyrrah had taken the lead to prevent another fire from team RWBY's cooking.

"Wait until they cool down you dolt!" Weiss yelled as Ruby grabbed for a cookie and burned her finger.

"Owie! Owie!" Ruby jumped around in a circle, rose petals sparsely falling to the floor as her aura healed the burn. Pyrrah laughed in amusement, until noticing an absence of Weiss,

"you can clean those up!" She heard the heiress yell as her white dress disapeared around the corner and up the hallway. Sighing she turned back to the platter,

"NORA!" She screeched when she noticed three cookies were missing, and Ruby was still bouncing in a circle of pain.

Groaning Pyrrah put the cookies out of reach and grabbed a broom that was always left in plain view partially because of the young girl's semblance, but also because of every first year as a whole, and their overall knack for, mostly accidentally, destroying things.

"Stay away from the cookies!" Pyrrah yelled as Ruby moved towards them, the older girl sighed and began to sweep up not only the monumental mess created from teaching three, frankly clueless, people how to bake, as well as the forty or fifty rose petals scattered in a small circle.

Thus was the scene Yang, with a head full of helmet hair walked in on, "I thought Rubes and Ice-queen were making the cookies?" Yang spoke up as she dragged over a chair and sat at the counter, well it was more of an island really. Pyrrah gave Yang an annoyed look,

"Woah there P," Yang said holding up her hands, "I can help clean up," she reached over and dragged her finger over the inside of the mixing bowl, she licked her finger before slapping Ruby's hand away from the cookies without looking, "I'll go find a rag, and Ice-queen. Be right back!" She yelled, grabbing Ruby's wrist and dragging the fourteen year old after her, just to give Pyrrah a little space to calm down, but also to keep Ruby away from the cookies.

"Hey Weiss, you should go help Pyrrah." Yang said, upon entering their room, she grabbed a rag from the bathroom and left again, not looking at Weiss, and not letting go of Ruby's wrist. Yang dragged her sister back into the common room just as Pyrrah put away the broom in the closet,

"Got a rag, here Rubes." She let go of her sister and shoved the rag into her hands, "wipe down the counters." Yang turned on the sink, "I got the dishes, have a cookie P." Pyrrah gave her friend a grateful look and grabbed a cookie before sitting in the chair Yang had dragged over. After a few minutes, Yang looked in the direction of the dorm rooms,

"I told Weiss to get her butt down here," Yang muttered, and Ruby looked up from where she was wiping down the counter,

"Yang, Weiss wasn't even in our room." Yang stopped drying off the bowl for a moment before continuingher work.

"I knew that."

* * *

"So, how exactly did you guys make all these cookies?" Jaune asked, the group had pushed all the tables together, and they were currently enjoying lemonade and a literal tower of cookies.

"Forced that Lark kid to use his semblance on 'em." Yang stated. Truthfully they'd cleaned up the mess, only to turn around and find Nora eating the last cookie, so they'd gone to Vale to buy more batter, but had gone overboard. They'd come back to the building with bags upon bags of ingredients. They had enough cookies for the next few months, as long as JPR could keep their N away from them.

"What?" Jaune asked, completely confused. Yang didn't answer him, she just popped another cookie into her mouth.

"I'm never doing that again." Pyrrah stated, and Ren pat her shoulder before returning to his book, absentmindedly eating a cookie in the process. Blake and Jaune looked over at the kitchen area and cringed, it looked like hell. Luckily for the sister teams, team CRDL walked through the front , Yang stood up,

"Hello!" She said in an overly cheery voice, "so I hear you guys like cookies?" She asked, Cardin gave her a suspicious look,

"what're you getting at?"

"Cookies," she pointed at the table, "we'll give you some, if you clean up that mess." She pointed to the kitchen,

"Seriously?" Cardin asked, crossing his arms and looking unamused.

"Seriously." Yang answered, blinking and letting her eyes turn red, that changed the leader's tune,

"oh, yea, okay..."Cardin muttered, he'd seen her sparring matches when her eyes turned red, not pretty.

"Thank you!" Yang sang with her usual upbeat tune, and returned to her seat. Jaune whispered,

"she's terrifying..." To Ruby. Ruby just shrugged and popped another cookie into her mouth.

* * *

Saturday October 14th

Saturday was unusually slow, Ruby sat around catching up on homework, and getting work done for a class she was advised to take. She wore simple dark blue jeans and a black jacket rimmed with red. It was unzipped to show a black shirt with red words reading 'Signal Academy' on it. Her red cape was loosely attached around the hood of her jacket, the cross pins fitting in perfectly with the silver of the zipper and cross emblem that replaced the rose one she normally wore.

The cross emblem hung like a tassel from a dark brown belt made to look like tanned animal hide. She sat with her combat boots on her desk and her 'Uses for Aura' text book open in her lap. She'd learned from prior experience to put a piece of paper between her shoes and the spotless wooden desk, lest the wrath of Weiss prevail.

"Hey Ruby, whatcha up to?" Ruby looked up to see Jaune peeking in through the open door,

"Some homework. You?" She asked, setting her open book on the table, and sitting up. Jaune stepped fully into the room,

"Actually that's what I was going to ask you about," Jaune shuffled his feet uncomfortably as he stood just inside the door,

"Ask away." Ruby said, motioning with her hands,

"Have you seen Ren?" Jaune asked, "we can't find him, Nora says he's fine, but you know. And he's not answering his scroll." Ruby thought for a moment,

"have you checked the library?" She asked, and Jaune nodded,

"first place we looked. Blake's there though."

"Storage closet in the common area?" Ruby tried again, Jaune just looked confused,

"Uh, no... Why would he be in there?" Ruby shrugged,

"I was putting away the broom once and he was asleep on the floor, under the extra mattresses." Jaune frowned,

"Under them?" He asked in disbelief,

"Yea, he made this whole fort thing, kinda cool... try there." Ruby picked back up her book as Jaune began to leave,

"Kay, I will. Thanks Ruby!" He ran out the door, and Ruby could hear his footsteps as he plunged down the stairs."

"Always something interesting around here..." Ruby muttered. Looking for the place in the book she'd been reading, behind her, outside her closed window, Yang tumbled down from the roof of the building.

* * *

Weiss had done a lot of weird things in her life, many of which had something to do with pranks on the people who worked for her father. This however was one of the most dangerous, barring the creation of bunk beds that is. Yang punched in her direction again, her weapon sending a bullet of dust that she easily dogged.

"This is a horrible idea." She yelled, jumping backwards, "tell me you realize this is a horrible idea!"

Yang didn't answer, but she did shoot at Weiss again, why the brawler had wanted to do a sparring match up on the roof, Weiss would never know. Why Weiss herself had agreed, Weiss didn't know either, she did know however, that this really, truly was, a horrible idea.

She was proven correct when Yang lunged at her, Weiss dogged and Yang plummeted off the roof of the building. "Crap..." Weiss muttered, and bolted back inside and down the stairs.

"Yang!" Weiss yelled, bursting out of the dorm room, Yang was standing in the middle of a crater, without a scratch on her, and with Nora jumping around her asking if she was an alien from outer space. Weiss sighed in relief, She put her hands on her hips and muttered,

"I'm never doing that again..."

* * *

Sunday October 15th

"Where've you two been?" Blake asked. It was almost lunch time, and both Ruby and Yang had been missing since early that morning,

"well if you must know-" Yang started, only to be cut off by Ruby, "there's no nondenominational church in Vale..."

"I tried to get her to go to a Catholic Church, we used to go to the one when Ruby was a baby on Patch before it got torn down by this freak Grimm event and replaced with a nondenominational one-"

"It wasn't the same..." Ruby cut her off, looking saddly at the ground,

"But you thought it was pretty when we got there?" Yang was picking at straws by then, proven by Ruby's answer,

"Yea... But what's with the saints?" Truthfully, Yang didn't know either,

"I dunno, but it's what they believe, we shouldn't judge." She shrugged and plopped into the desk chair.

"Freak Grimm event...?" Blake muttered, but no one answered her.

"Is there a Luthrin Church?" Weiss asked, but Yang just shrugged, Blake sighed,

"I'm not really religious." She muttered,

"that's too bad..." Yang stated, before changing the conversation to something else,

"anyone want to go visit Vale today?"

"Its Sunday you dunce, all the stores are closed." Weiss berated the blonde, and Yang's face fell.

"Oh yea. Hey wanna go spar in one of the training rooms?" She tried again,

"I'll go." Blake closed her book and left it on her pillow, "just let me change first." The girl walked in the direction of the bathroom.

"Hey what am I going to do?" Weiss asked,

"Easy, do something with Ruby..." Yang pointed at the spot where Ruby had been standing. Had been, being the key words. The group looked to where Ruby had been, to find a pile of settled rose petals.

"She's cleaning that up when she gets back." Yang stated, pointing at the pile.

"Well, now's a perfect time to tell us what the rose petals are about." Weiss pointed out, picking up one of them.

"Yeah, I'm kinda curious." Blake added in, stopping outside the bathroom door. Yang seemingly ignored them,

"Ruby?" She called out. Once she was sure her little sister wasn't in the room, she closed the door,

"first of all, she doesn't know yet." Yang sighed, sitting down on Weiss' bed, Blake and Weiss sat on Blake' nods came from the two, and Yang continued, "you've all noticed how long it takes to knock her aura down, right?" Yang asked, she received two more nodds.

"The petals are real, annoying maybe, but real, they're made because she has this huge amount of aura." Yang held her arms up as an example,

"It would be really bad if her semblance didnt balance it out with the petals. we're talking major health problems here. But it also means, essentiallly, she almost never can deplete her aura, her oponent would have to be super, super strong. Signal wouldn't have been able to teach a person with that much power, not properly at least. My dad knew that, he bugged our scrolls by the way, he knew that Ruby couldn't keep going to Signal for aura training, he was going to have her wait until she was seventeen to let her go to Beacon though." Yang paused, and Weiss made some guess work,

"But then she stopped that robbery."

"Yea, she stopped it, and from then on, Dad couldn't stop her, he could only do what he could to help her succeed." The two nodded in understanding, then Weiss did something unexpected,

"Let me see your scroll." Weiss held out her hand,

"Huh?" Yang looked at her hand like it was an unknown object,

"Just let me see it." Weiss stated, shaking her outstretched hand a little.

"Okay, okay, fine." Yang exhaled her words and handed Weiss her scroll. She imidietly regretted it when Weiss took off the top part of the machine. "What are you doing!?"

"Relax." Weiss pulled a small object out from inside the scroll, put the machine back together, and handed it back to Yang. She then inspected the object for a moment before showing it to the blonde, "This, is a bug."

She held it up so Blake could see it as well, "it tracks the scroll, and anything on it." She handed it to Yang, "So that's how he does it..." Yangs scroll beeped, and Yang looked down, "it's from my uncle." Yang tapped on the message,

"Don't touch Ruby's scroll, Weiss Schnee." Yang read and looked up at Weiss, who held up her hands in surrender. before typing in her answer, "as long, as I have, access to, the info on, the tracker, send." After a few moments, a downloadable program was sent from Qrow's scroll, and Yang tapped on it,

"Whoa..." She showed the program to Weiss and Blake,

"Why's it say 'warning' under speed?" Weiss asked, Yang didn't answer, she was watching an icon that stood for Ruby fly towards where they currently were.

"Uh, can someone open the door?" Yang asked, before putting her scroll away, Blake opened the door, and promptly left through it, "you people are crazy, I'm going to the library," she stated and as she exited the room,

"And by the way, you currently have twenty four hour surveillance on you're _team leader_!" She called over her shoulder, "it won't end well!" Weiss looked at Yang,

"she _is_ right."

Yang seemed too indifferent for the ice-queen's liking, "We'll be fine." Weiss froze at that answer, and looked at Yang,

"I have nothing to do with this." She stated and Yang smiled dangerously,

"Oh you have everything to do with it." Weiss harrumphed and walked through the door, closing it as she left,

"Wait! Leave the door open!" She didn't come back, and Yang sighed, and grabbed her algebra book, she needed to get some late work done. She'd just sat down at the desk when a thud was heard. It was a way to familiar sound, the main reason all the doors at home were always open, except for the front door, they'd stopped leaving that one open when Ruby had run through the screen they'd supplemented it with.

It was the sound a door made when ninety-six pounds of fourteen year old ran into a it at anywhere between twelve and twenty miles per hour. Any faster, and the girl would crash right through it. A few seconds after the thud, Ruby opened the door, rubbing her head and muttering, "Why was it closed?"

"Ice-queen and her habits." Yang answered, she was a little preoccupied wondering what X was when twelve times X equaled sixty-four.

"Your actually doing homework?" Ruby asked, looking over her sister's shoulder,

"yea... I need to pass this class, I've already taken it three times." Yang didn't look up from her book and in a falsely upbeat voice,

"Fourth's a charm." Ruby grabbed her sketchbook off the top of the book shelf, and jumped up onto her bed, it didn't surprise her when Yang yelled,

"Dear Algebra, would you please stop asking me to find your X!? SHE ISNT COMING BACK!" Ruby got comfortable with her book,

"Use a calculator." Ruby answered, "you'll find 'her' easily _that_ way."

Yang groaned and fished a calculator out of the drawer.

* * *

Friday October 29th

"Okay class, Grimm Day is Sunday. Luckily for you all, it is a Holliday, there will be no classes on Monday. See you all next Tuesday." Glynda tried to get all her thoughts out before the bell rang on Friday, two days before alleged Grimm Day.

"ONWARD!" Ruby yelled, running out of the sparring classroom, the rest of her team and JNPR following at a much slower pace.

"She'll get stuck at the docks anyway." Yang answered when Jaune asked if they should follow her.

"I'm gonna catch her!" Nora yelled, and before anyone could stop her, she bolted, following the petal trail.

"You know," Ren started, "she's probably gonna get in trouble for the petals at one point." He caught up to walk next to Yang, and she clarified for him,

"It's not something she can control, they can't yell at her for that." Pyrrah sped up as well, soon she was walking on Yang's other side,

"Why can't she control them?"

Yang didn't answer right away, Weiss tried to catch her eye, but the blonde purposely avoided her gaze,

"I don't know," the oldest of the group lied.

"So what are we going to check out?" Blake changed the subject before things could get awkward, she was walking next to Jaune, Weiss was trailing behind the group, Yang punched her hands together,

"Prank stores!" She exclaimed with a devious grin,

"Let's not." Weiss yelled from the back of the group, Jaune pointed behind him,

"I second that!"

"But it'll be so much fun!" Yang pleaded, and Pyrrah tried to pat her shoulder, but Blake pulled her back and away from the blonde,

"Don't, she'll think your trying to touch her hair." Pyrrah only looked confused and Weiss leaned forward,

"You don't touch Yangs hair. It doesn't end well." Pyrrah nodded and fell in step next to Weiss. After a few minutes of random banter, the group arrived at the docks. The scene they arrived on however, was worrisome.

Ruby and Nora were laughing. Why they were laughing wasn't clear, but there was a scribble like trail of rose petals all over the place. "Do we want to know?" Weiss asked no one in particular as the group walked up to the two.

"No." Ren answered her anyway. Weiss glared at him,

"Hey guys, Nora said we should pull pranks on people this Sunday!" Ruby's words came out fast, as she wasn't concentrating on her semblance, but all Yang heard was pranks,

"Yeah!" She pumped her fist into the air, and Pyrrah put her head in her hands.

* * *

"Hey man, you just going to sit there all day?" A young man, probably no older then twenty-three, sat at a desk, his older friend, maybe pushing thirty, had just walked in, and was standing behind him. No answer came from the younger man, he just sat staring at the wall in a trance-like state.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, Cray!" The older man slammed his hand on the desk, startling the younger, named Cray. The man, a boy really, clad in gray boots, black jeans and a gray shirt, with a long sleeved black undershirt, and fingerless gray gloves, jumped up, the chair clattered backwards and hit the floor with a thud,

"What!?" He asked in an annoyed tone,

"I'm back," the younger gave the older a confused look,

"from that mission?" Still confusion, until the older man shoved a stack of Lien on the desk. Then Cray couldn't tear his eyes away from the amount of Lien,

"This'll get us a lot of stuff..." The older man, dressed mostly in black, put his hands on his hips,

"woulda gotten more if you'd get off your lazy but, I don't know how you ever graduated from Shade, I barely passed from Atlas, and your some honor student, I'll never understand."

No answer came from Cray Gris, just a shrug before the kid turned around and righted the chair.

"Hey I'm no big deal now, the world's moved on. You know, some kid got admitted to Beacon, apparently 'ees fifteen." Cray picked up the stack of Lien and absentmindedly counted it, much to the older man, Rado Drake's, chargin,

"hold on, this kid's how old?" Cray shrugged,

"fifteen, why?" Rado was already stomping out the door. Cray sighed, when Rado was angry, or just plain jealous, he went out and robbed places.

* * *

Red petals burst down the street as a childish voice screeched, "Dust Shop!" People jumped out of the way only to be blown backwards by an air current laced with Rose petals and sharing the same scent.

And all it took was Yang telling the silver-eyed girl that they could visit one, reiteration, just one, dust shop on the way back to the docks. That was the only incentive needed for the Rose Tornado to take off down the street, with a comment from Nora being that Yang should do it again.

"Should we try to catch her?" Jaune asked, and Yang sighed,

"Have you learned nothing?" She asked,

"I wanna see if he can." Blake suggested, with a badly hidden smirk,

"Yea you do that." Weiss muttered, moving out of the way when Nora stopped in her tracks to walk next to Ren, the boy had just stated,

"I'll watch." And Nora had lost it laughing, she fell to the ground in a fit of giggles. Ren motioned for the group to continue on while he waited for Nora to get a hold of herself.

"We'll catch up." He told his friends, and smiled at overly curious, and frankly judgmental onlookers as they passed by.

"So if we can't catch up to her, how do we know where she is?" Jaune asked curiously, looking back at Yang who was trailing behind the group, looking at her scroll. She put it away and smiled,

"Because she's my sister, she'll be at Dust till Dawn. I'm willing to bet money on it." Yang crossed her arms in confidence, and Weiss sighed, the pale girl knew exactly how Yang had come to this conclusion. And it wasn't just the trail of rose petals.

"Well, I'm not..." Jaune muttered, when you had seven sisters, you knew a trick when you saw one, he wouldn't comment on it though, but Pyrrah carried the conversation anyway,

"Couldn't we just follow the trail of petals?" She asked, pointing at the trail, as well as the scattered, and disgruntled, onlookers. Yang stopped walking for a second before catching up to Weiss, she held up her hands in a shrugging position,

"yea, that's what I normally do." Jaune looked back behind him in confusion,

"but you just said-" Weiss cutt him off,

"Look this conversation could go on all day, or we could just talk about other, more important things." Yang smacked her hands together, a commonality of hers when she was exited,

"Like Grimm Day!" Weiss groaned.

The sun was setting, turning the sky orange, and the clouds blood red, the lights of the City were beginning to flicker on as the group made their way to the dust shop that Ruby frequented. Upon entering, the sound of a bell could be heard above the groups heads.

Ren and Nora managed to catch up to them just before the door closed, when Jaune asked how, Ren had simply pointed at the tell tale trail of rose petals, Jaune had muttered an "oh..." They could easily see Ruby in the back of the shop, looking at some magazines. So the group split up, each looking at their own interests.

Weiss was looking at the dust crystals behind the counter, Blake was looking at a magazine titled, "Vale weekly" it's subtitle displayed a witty naming of another White Fang attack on Vale. Nora was looking at a snack stand in the corner, Ren admired the replaceable blades.

Jaune dragged Pyrrah to the magazine section to show her a comic he'd seen, and Yang went to the counter to ask about a necklace, under, 'official business' as she called it.

She'd just made a purchase when a man dressed in mostly black entered the shop. Without saying a word, he positioned himself near the back of the store, where he appeared to be looking through weapon attachments. However, his movements and body language immediately caught Blake's eye, and she bagan to move closer.

Ruby knew her friends had entered the store, she could see Jaune, and a confused Pyrrah out of the corner of her eye, and Blake moving towards the weapon attachments out of the corner of the other. She heard Yang talking to the clerk, about what, she didn't know, but it was something.

Weiss had walked over to her and asked what she was reading, and when she had shown her the title, "Weapons Monthly" the pale princess had called her a gear head before finding and picking up a magazine on specialized dust, "Dust freak." Ruby had muttered, and when Weiss looked up sharply asking, "what!?" In a dangerously angry inquiry, Ruby had looked up at her with the most innocent face she could muster and asked, "what?"

The man, dressed in black, had by then moved towards the magazines, and had picked one up, a shopping magazine, obviously for people with a lot of money. It was a wonder Weiss hadn't seen, or at least picked it up. On the other hand, she may have avoided it all together because of its content.

Weiss put her magazine away and walked off, probably to look at the dust dispensers on the side of the store, leaving Ruby to her own devises. The man then spoke, oblivious to his bow-wearing tale,

"So, this shop fairly priced?" Is was seemingly innocent, but Blake knew better, she was keeping her eye on him.

But it could be just that, an innocent question for a first time customer, he was dressed like a hunter, obviously an experienced one. And he had an Atlesian accent as well. He could be harmless. But when you had a past like Blake's, you learn one thing above all else, be wary of everyone.

Just as well, he could be dangerous, his whole demeanor put the girl on edge, and considering her past, that could be a horribly bad thing. Either way, Ruby didn't sense any issue,

"Yea, cheeply priced dust for the most part, worth more then the prices. Unless it really is expensive, still a fair price though."

"Oh, okay, thank you." Ruby went back to her magazine, completely missing the dangerously interested glint in his eye as he then made his way to the counter of the shop,

"Hey mister, I need a refill of this canister." He took out an empty, refillable dust canister, and the shopkeeper nodded, took the measurements and typed into the computer. The clerk then pointed at the wall, the man took the hint. He began to fill his canister, and Blake began to doubt her instinct.

The man filled His canister and payed for the dust, but he didn't leave right away, he went back to the wall with the magazines, "Hey, thanks for the tip, name's Gunegu (guh-nay-guh), been a hunter upwards ten years now, you?" Ruby looked up at the man, introduced as Gunega, and smiled,

"Anytime, names Ruby, huntress in training, first year at Beacon." It was customary for hunters and huntress to introduce each other with the time in which they'd gained experience, that way you'd know if the person you just met was on a completely different level or not. It didn't work in all cases, as a person's power varied, but it did give a rough outline.

The man smiled, and Ruby again missed the warning signs Blake wasn't in the position to see, "nice to meet ya kid, good luck at the academy, oh, and the teachers are weirder than they seem, trust me. maybe I'll see ya again sometime." With that, the man walked away, and Blake let him go. He seemed innocent enough, but she still didn't trust the unknown stranger.

"Bye!" Ruby called after him as the sound of bells alerted the population in the store that the door had opened.

After a few minutes, translation to the rest of the world without a speed semblance: almost one hour, Yang tapped on Ruby's shoulder,

"Hey Rubes, if you don't want to walk back to Beacon, then we need to go catch the last bull-head." Ruby groaned and bought the magazine she was halfway through, 'the huntsman and Huntresses magazine: October addition' and joined her friends outside.

* * *

Rado had come back to the building the two were crashing in, he wasn't carrying copious amounts of dust, Cray saw that as a good thing, but he did have an odd look on his face. Frankly it worried the younger hunter, but he put it to the back of his mind.

"So. What do you know about this fifteen year old Beacon student?" The question was out of place in Cray's mind, but he answered anyway,

"Dunno much, a dust shop got robbed, the kid stopped it, the kid got admitted to beacon. That's it." A thoughtful sound escaped the older man's throat, but Cray didn't comment on it. The man was usually lost in his own mind, came with the semblance.

* * *

As the eight kids walked into the common area of their dormitory building, they were met with a bunch of first years cheering on Russel Thrush as he arm wrestled another student. It wasn't a particularly odd sight, just an unappreciated one.

Luckily the group had already eaten dinner in Vale, so there was no need to linger in the obnoxiously loud room. Instead they stole away to team RWBY's room, after all, courtesy of the sisters, they had a video game.

So the matches started, Yang against Ren. And so was a fairly common sight to behold on Friday nights, the two teams hanging out as a group of friends, laughing, joking, and in Yang and Nora's case, planning.

Ren had for once, forfieted having anything to do with Nora's shenanigans, and that put an end to their 'prank the teachers' plot. Surprisingly Pyrrah had gotten involved in the planning as well. Even if it was only to make sure fire wouldn't be involved.

Jaune was staying as far away from Ruby's bed as possible, his fear of it had started when it rocked back and forth as Ruby jumped onto it and sat down on its edge, causing it to lean according to her weight, the heiress had just used that as proof of its death trap-ness, but Ruby refused to listen.

At around midnight, Pyrrah managed to get JNR to go to their room for some much needed sleep, thanking her friends for the fun.

Well not Ruby, Ruby was asleep horizontally on a vertical top bunk. Her legs were dangling off the side. Yang had told them to leave her; but before going to sleep herself, she had woken Ruby up to get the girl to change into her pjs.

Weiss had complained at first about the bathroom light, but was out cold five minutes later when Ruby came out and got in bed, dog sleep mask and all.

* * *

Sunday, October 31- Grimm Day

The day started out normally enough. Cereal in the common room, well oatmeal for the lactose intolerant Weiss, and Ren, who, as explained by Nora, despised milk, around lunchtime though, things started to get weird. Team CVFY had made a Grimm-House in the auditorium, and it would open as soon as the sun had set, already though, students were seen roaming the campus in costumes.

And as it turned out, Nora was justified in wanting to prank the teachers, after all, they sure hadn't spared any expense in setting up pranks all over the school.

Everywhere you turned, another student was falling into a pit, courtesy of Glynda, having paint of different colors pelted at them by professors Ooblek and Port, or iced coffee dropped on their heads. The headmaster would never admit to that being his doing however.

It was truly a scary, funny, weird day. Ater all, according to ancient folklore, Grimm Day was a day that you dressed as scary things, in hope of keeping the creatures of Grimm away.

Now, however, it was known that Grimm knew not the meaning of fear. (For the record, Yang knew better then to believe that, especially after what her father and uncle had told her.) Now it was just a remnant of the old ways, a steadfast tradition.

And Ruby hated it. What was the point? She knew Yang liked it for the pranks, a fairly new add on, but she didn't like the idea of trying to become fear. Weren't you supposed to kill stuff made from fear? Ruby didn't understand why people loved it so much, extra hunters and huntresses had to be called in every year, on this day, just to keep the boarders secure.

And what was the point? A few hours of fun and fear? That was an easy question in Ruby's mind, simple really. There was no point. So that night, as she walked into the Grimm-house created by team CVFY, in her normal combat skirt and cape, with Crescent Rose attached to her belt, she fully expected to be pranked.

She hoped it wouldn't be messy because she was planning on visiting her mom that night. Ruby was, however, surprised when a hand clamped itself over her mouth as another clamped it around her arm and dragged her behind a fake wall put up for decoration.

She was still expecting it to be a prank though. The panic set in when she felt a prick on her shoulder and the world around her faded to black.

* * *

Saturday, October 30th- Day Before Grimm Day

Rado sat at the desk that Cray had been at the day before, on his scroll was every bit of information he could find on the youngest student to ever attend Beacon Academy. With every piece of information he found, his jealousy grew, as well as his anger.

His hate as well. Cray was beginning to worry about the man he'd come to know as a mentor, giving him even more training even after Shade. But what he was doing now just wasn't healthy, he'd tried telling the man so himself, all he got back was,

"This kid, Ruby Rose, all she's ever got was special treatment! What do you want to bet it's because of her mixed up family situation!? Or maybe it's because her _daddy's_ a teacher at Signal!?"

Frankly it was getting boarder line stalkerish, and Cray was getting afraid his most trusted friend might make a horrible mistake. and he was right.


	3. Wrap-Ups, and an Alpha Ursa

A/N: Gunegu means black and in phonetic spelling is origionally spelled, Gvnegv. This chapter origionally consisted of chapters 9-12. Enjoy!

* * *

RWBY

Sunday, October 31st- Grimm Day

Yang wasn't worried, only slightly concerned. She walked around the Grimm House for maybe the sixth time. People were all over the place, eating sweets from the concession stand, drinking a cup of punch, or just talking with friends. Every time she saw a group of first years or anyone she recognized, wich was slightly harder considering a lot of people were in costumes, she'd ask them if they'd seen Ruby. Soon she'd caught up with Weiss, "Hey, Weiss, have you seen Ruby?"

Weiss was dressed up as a Snow White Ursa, but it was more of a highly decorated dress then anything else. Yang was wearing her second combat outfit, claiming that she wanted to ride around Vale with her motorcycle and see what the citizens were doing. She hadn't left yet, and Weiss was beginning to wonder if the girl just didn't want to wear a costume,

"Don't you have that scroll-tracker thing?" Her tone showed she was slightly annoyed, and Yang nodded and held it up,

"I can't find her." The dot standing for Yang stood right on top of the one standing for Ruby, and it was zoomed in as far as it could.

"Please look with me Weiss?" Weiss gave an annoyed exhale of air, and followed the blonde. On their first round, Yang already knew she'd made the right choice on asking Weiss to help her. The pale girl had a certain kind of rebellious streak in her, she knew all the best places in the room, in which one could hide. Nine thirty at night, and they'd found something. Ruby's scroll, sitting on the ground next to a decorative wall, close to the entrance.

"Well that ends it." Weiss stated, picking up the scroll,

"She probably dropped it either on her way in, or out." She handed the machine to Yang,

"You know how she gets in crowded places." Yang just stared at the object,

"She probably just had a small panic attack and went outside to calm down-" Yangs head shot up from the scroll,

"Ruby!?" She screeched and ran off towards the entrance,

"You're welcome!" Weiss yelled after her, before walking back into the party.

(A/N:anyone who has ever lost a little sibling in a crowded place knows how this feels, I was once hanging out with a few friends at a pizza place, my seven year old sibling was sitting and coloring next to me, we were all outside, when he told me he had to go to the bathroom,so I said okay, and watched him go into the Starbucks next door, the pizza place didn't have a bathroom, after a few minutes I went inside to get him, and he wasn't there, so I ran around the entire area, looking in all the stores, everywhere I could think, yelling his name. I found him in the serve yourself ice cream shop next door, eliciting samples out of the young woman working there. I'm the worst big sister ever. Continueing on!)

Yang ran across the campus, searching everywhere she could think of. After hours of searching, she had only one place left to look. She ran through the Emerald forest, and kept running across the plain until she came to a large canyon. She ran along the canyon until she found it. The grave marker of her stepmother, Summer Rose. It stood alone in the grass, empty and forlorn. No one had been able to find her body, that was the reason Ruby still believed her mother was alive, even if she was the only one.

But the younger girl was no where to be found, just Yang, standing at the grave of the only mother she had known, and the woman who'd raised her.

"Hey mom." She muttered, looking at the grave, she hadn't seen it in years, and because she'd come from beacon, there wasn't a trail for her to follow, the trail started on the outskirts of Vale.

"It's been a really long time." The moon above her shown bright and whole, imprinting itself on the cold October frost that lay on the long grass.

"I know I stopped coming when I almost got Ruby killed, for the fifth time. I never apologized for that. I don't know where she is, but I can't find her, again. Maybe it's just me who's worried and she's completely fine."

Doubt filled her mind, even as the words were coming out of her mouth, and a soft wind picked up, leaves drifted around and passed Yang as she made her final decision,

"I'll go ask Ozpin, he knows everything!" Yang turned to leave,

"Thanks, for the talk, Summer. I'll find Ruby, and I'll try to visit you more."

The blonde turned and ran back through the forest, following the trail she'd accidentally seared through the Emerald forest. She red termed the campus and ran towards the tower, the Beacon of hope Ruby always fixated on.

She ran through it, got on the elevator and hit the button for the top floor. The door opened on the last floor to Gonly da Goodwitch and Ozpin stopped in their speech and looking at the elevator, the blonde immidietly felt like she was intruding,

"Um am I interrupting?"

Ozpin waved his hand and Glynda stepped back a bit to let Yang talk to the headmaster,

"What is it miss Xiao Long?" Yang walked up to the desk and asked with a worried tone,

"I was wondering, you wouldn't happen to know where Ruby is? Would you?" Glynda frowned and Ozpin stopped for a moment.

"Ms. Xiao Long, when exactly did you were unable to find Ms. Rose?" Yang stopped and looked at her scroll,

"Maybe three or four hours ago." Ozpin hummed thoughtfully and searched. around in the drawer of his desk,

"And, would these mean anything to you?" Three letters where in his hand, one sent Friday, the other sent Saturday, and the third had arrived that morning. The only thing the first one said, was, "one who builds up an army, cannot protect every soldier."

The Second only said, "a group together can protect the many, but may overlook the few."

The third was most concerning, "but what happens when one disappears, do the rest notice the absence or carry on with their pitiful existence?"

There was no return address, and the writing was hakily written and sloppily printed. Yang saw no connection to Ruby in them, so she shook her head and handed the letters back to the headmaster,

"No, nothing about Ruby, not even her eyes." Ozpin stared at the girl and Glynda inhaled sharply, he managed to succefully fain innocence,

"I'm sorry, her eyes?" Yang frowned,

"I know, you know, Ozpin." She didn't use his title to add a hit, she knew everything about her sister. Everything. Even the things Ruby herself didn't know. That's why when she couldn't find Ruby the first few minutes of her search, she'd panicked.

"Silver eyes." She continued, knowing full well she had both teacher's attention,

"When we were little, I had an obsession with finding my biological mother. About a year after Summer died, we had checked out an old house infested with Grimm, and were saved by my uncle, but I still looked, every chance I got. We were searching around the old cottage, Qrow had killed all the Grimm there, when this huge Nevermore showed up. I was about nine, Ruby was maybe four.

It was going to kill us. Then this huge white light came from Ruby, when it faded, the Nevermore was disintigrating, and Ruby was unconscious. I carried her home and told my Dad and Uncle what happened, they told me what it was."

Patch hardly had any Grimm, in fact it was known for not having any Grimm at all, but a few residents in the backcountry will tell you tales of old houses left alone for years becoming infested with the creatures of darkness.

"Ms Xiao Long, I take it you are worried about your sister, however, it is Grimm day, we cannot suspect any foul play until tomorrow. If she hasn't returned by them, come to me and measures to find her will be taken."

Ozpin stated as calmly as he could, he knew Qrow would probably tell Yang if something like that happened, he also knew Qrow would tell her not to tell Ruby, but still,

"Ms. Xiao Long, I trust you refrain from telling any one person, about your sister's, ability." Yang began to leave, but when he told asked her that, she turned around, an annoyed if not betrayed glint disappearing from her eyes,

"yes sir." She left the room. _As if I didn't know that already..._

* * *

Unknown Time

the first thing she felt was a searing pain in her arm. The second was the absence of Crescent Rose. The third was the cold concrete floor.

Groaning inwardly, Ruby forced her silver eyes open,

"wha...?" She muttered when she succeeded. Darkness. There was enough light filtering in to see it was a plain room, black brick walls, and concrete flooring. The door that barred her from the outside world was a dark rusted metal and bolted shut. She looked around the room. There was absolutely nothing in the room, not even a camera.

As quietly as she could, she stood up.

Big mistake. The world swayed in a dizzying manner, forcing the red-clad girl back into a sitting position. Frowning she tried again, slower this time. She succeeded. She made her way to the wall of the room.

It was maybe five meters wide and the same in length. Gently she pressed her hand against a spot where two bricks met up. There was no mortar, but the cold air wasn't coming from the outside. This room was surrounded by something else, most likely it was hidden inside another building. She felt all around the walls, no way out except the door.

She tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge, it didn't even make a sound. The silence and smallness of the room began to get to her and she moved to sit in the corner, to give herself the illusion of having more space. It wasn't working.

She looked up at the ceiling, a small lightbulb hung from a chain, at least the room had high ceilings. She settled for focusing on the lightbulb. And her breathing, _inhale, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, exhale, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight._

She counted silently with her fingers focusing on visualizing every word as she counted. That helped calm her panic. She was still scared though. After all, she was alone, in a small dark room, having a panic attack.

* * *

Monday, November 1st

Cray knew something like this would happen, Rado had lost it. He paced angrily trying to think of a way out of this situation,

"You kidnapped a fifteen year old girl!" Rado only laughed, he was in his own world of hate and anger,

"Get this, her transcripts at Signal last year put her current age at fourteen! She isn't even fifteen yet!" Cray was beyond panicked by now, Rado had brought an unconscious _fourteen year old_ and shoved her into a small storage room,

"what do you even plan on doing!?" Was Cray's last ditch effort to span his old friend out of his insane streak,

"Ransoms! Her family! Or what's left of it... Her school! Her hunter team! Everyone! Even the city! I'm sure they'll want their youngest protector back!" Rado was gone, lost to the darkness of his own mind, he was practically giddy at the idea of a ransom,

"What do you plan on doing with her until it gets payed?" Cray tried to prove that this scheme would never work but Rado's idea was plain horrible,

"Leave her there, she doesn't even need to know other people are here!" Cray froze,

"What about food! Or water!? How do you plan that?"

No answer, Rado was staring at the door, as a small beeping sound was heard, "she's awake, she tried to open the door!"

"Oh joy!" Cray muttered angrily, but at this point he was trapped, he could leave, and let the girl starve or die of dehydration, or he could try to do his best to keep her alive and safe from an obviously mentally unstable man. Why he'd fallen so far, so fast was a mystery to him, but he was in the splash zone now.

* * *

Monday morning rolled around, and Yang was the first one awake, she had hoped Ruby would be safe and sound, asleep in her bed by then, but she wasn't. And Yang's heart plummeted to her feet. She got dressed as fast as she could, barring the fact that there were no classes that day, and ran across campus. She burst out of the elevator in Ozpins office to find him sitting there, drinking coffee, at five thirty in the morning.

"Ms. Xiao Long, any luck with your sister?" He asked, sipping his hot coffee, Yang was a mess by then, her hair was a rats nest because she hadn't brushed it, her cloths were slightly disheveled, and her eyes were rimmed with red,

"No! She's not here, she's... She's Gone!" The words portrayed all the worry, pain, and anger, she could ever feel at one point in time, Ozpin sipped his coffee again, most likely unintentionally putting Yang even more on edge,

"All right. I will send a few teams into the surrounding forests. And into the city as well. Feel free to search wherever you think it is most likely you will find her." Yang nodded, and Ozpin finished,

"Good luck Ms. Xiao Long." Yang nodded and left at a slightly calmer pace to wake up her team.

Yang was never the best person to raise her little sister, she had to raise herself as well. And her brash nature didn't help things. Neither did an overprotective father who had shut down from grief for a few years. How she and Ruby had made it was largely because their uncle, Qrow always kept tabs on them, and knowing what she did now, it was probable that their cloths all had trackers in them when they were younger. What Yang wouldn't give to put a tracker on Ruby, one that didn't have anything to do with a scroll. Maybe they could chip her, like Zwei.

Either way, Ruby was missing, again, and it was Yang's job to find her. There was no helpful Crow turning into her uncle and showing her the way this time. Yang was on her own. Minus Weiss and Blake who were currently shouting Ruby's name. Also team JNPR who were across the street doing the same. Didn't mean they were any closer to finding Yang's little sister. They were passing the Dust Till Dawn when Blake happened to look inside.

"Hey, it's that guy." Blake had stopped at the window and was staring inside, Yang stopped a few feet in front of her,

"What guy?" She asked, walking back to the window and looking inside as well.

Inside stood the man who had talked to Ruby a few days before, looking around in suspicious curiosity.

"Oh him." Yang simply stated, Weiss joined them at the window just as the man pulled out a pistol loaded with explosive red dust.

"We have to stop him!" Weiss yelled and ran through the door, alerting the man as the bells rang out.

"Maybe he knows what happened to Ruby?" Blake suggested before following the blonde into the store.

"Stop theif! Weiss yelled, drawing her rapier and pointing it at the older man. He froze in his threat to the clerk and turned to look at her,

"You three again, looking for your little red friend?" Blake saw the look in his eyes. She'd seen it many times before, the look of insanity, a man who felt he'd lost something and was on a rampage to regain it.

"Weiss..." She warned, but her friend wasn't listening, neither was Yang, who chambered her weapons as well.

The man merely smiled. He held up a few dust crystals, and smashed them into the ground. The dust mixed together and created an explosion of smoke allowing him to get away from everyone except Blake, without a word the girl nimbly followed him out of the store, and passed JNPR who was going to check out what the explosion was about. She followed him as he ran through the streets. And farther into the warehouse district. She felt her scroll buzzing but quickly silenced it as she continued.

He went into an abandoned warehouse, and Blake easily scaled it and searched the roof for another entrance. She found a window that was slightly open and easily listened to the conversation going on in the building below.

"Rado, this is a bad idea, just let the kid go!" There was a laugh, it matched that of Blake's old friend's, it made her feel sick, on top of that, the new voice had called the man Rado, _Gunegu was a fake name after all._

"Why? I just saw a few of her _friends_ they looked all angry and everything, it's perfect! People think they can just forget about each other so easily, well I won't let them forget me!"

"So! you kidnapped a kid! Rado, you're crazy, it won't work!" The voice yelled again, "oh chill out Cray, think of all the money!"

"I'm not in it for the money!" The man named Cray yelled, and Blake leaned forward. Inside the room she could see a metal door, and next to it lay a red cape and, Crescent Rose. She backed away from the window and took out her scroll, calling Yang was first on her list.

* * *

The smoke cleared up and Weiss and Yang found the store deserted, except for a very confused clerk looking around.

"Where's Blake?" Yang asked, looking around the store.

"I don't know, call her." Yang nodded, and team JNPR rushed into the store,

"What happened?" They looked around the store. Weiss bent down and inspected the dent in the ground. After she checked with the clerk to make sure he was okay, she asked Pyrrah to call the police. Yang went outside to call Blake, but the girl didn't answer. Yang shrugged and went back inside, the police had arrived, and they were questioning everyone.

The police were finishing up and leaving when Yang received a call from Blake, "I'm gonna take this." She pointed at her scroll and walked away from her friends,

"Blake? Where are you?" Yang asked into her scroll, as she watched the police car drive away, the last thing she expected was,

"Yang, not so loud, I'm sending you coordinates, I think I found Ruby." And before Yang could say another word, Blake hung up. Yang sighed and began to walk back to her friends, soon her scroll beeped, Blake had sent the coordinates.

* * *

Monday, November 1st, 5:30 p.m.

Ruby sat in the lonely room she'd woken up in, it had been hours, but no one had come in. Her stomach grumbled idly, and she had given up on counting. Not that not counting worked, having an anxiety attack for an unknown amount of time was one of the worst experienced Ruby had ever had. She hadn't moved since she'd first sat down, except to draw her knees up to her chest and wrap her arms around them.

Describing the situation was simple, terrifying, and extremely boring. Terrifying in that she was penned in, boring in that she had nothing to do but count, and the anxiety wasn't helping. In her mind it'd been long enough. For some people, anxiety paralyzes them, not in the,

'They can't move at all and never will again' way, in the,

'I have no energy or desire to move and want to sit in isolation in a place of my choosing' or in Ruby's case,

'wherever's farthest from the door, and gives the illusion of having space to move in.'

On terms of it being long enough, Ruby began to drag herself off the floor. Her legs and empty stomach protested. Have you ever had an anxiety attack and not wanted to eat, only to get sick because you feel worse? Sometimes anxiety attacks get worse with hunger, either way, Ruby was standing on unsteady feet, and the room was spinning slightly. She fell more then walked towards the door and grabbed the handle,

"Hey! Anyone!" She shook it with all her strength, pulled with all her might,

"Someone!?" She banged on it, the strength in her hits lessening with each collision. Anyone with an anxiety attack can tell you that you'll feel weak, your strength and stamina wanes greatly, and fast. You lose your breath much quicker then in a normal situation.

They were the bane of Ruby's existence. Honestly she was surprised she hadn't had any panic or anxiety attacks the day she came to Beacon, she'd taken it as a good omen, a sign that her anxiety was going away.

Tough luck. On Remanent things like anxiety were all to real, usually bypassing the protective aura, unless your semblance had something to do with the mind. Sometimes though, in times of dire importance, your aura can help, give you extra strength, help you push through the problem.

For Ruby that was now. She'd stopped pounding and slid to the floor, head on her knees as she leaned against the door. That was when she had a moment of clarity.

Anxiety attacks hang around, panic attacks come and go, the most agrivating things in your mind, but for anxiety attacks, sometimes there are moments, where the fear isn't that great, and you can think clearly. Ruby looked up at the wall, the wall that was way to close for her liking.

An idea came to her, a painful, stupid, Yangified idea. As her sister always said, If you can't go through the door, go through the wall. Even if the door is reinforced metal, and the wall is brick.

* * *

5:00p.m.

Blake got off the phone with Yang and came back to the skylight-window, the men had stopped talking while she was preoccupied. She looked down, then her heart plummeted to the ground next to the dead and bleeding body of the man named Cray.

Her heart started to drill into the ground however, when a wall next to the metal door flew to bits, accompanied by rose other man, Rado had a weapon. A kind of long spear, it had a sheath that connected to the end of the stick as well as a specialized handle. it appeared the handle could be pulled from the spear, as well as the sheath, and would prove to be a sword, which was covered in blood. The blood of the person he'd taken under his wing.

Rado had never been lucky, barely making it into Atlas, he similarly barely made it out as well. Bad luck and misfortune rendered him very likely to lose his mind. Why it had taken so long was unknown, but a miracle in and of itself. Ruby was not the cause of his derailment, merely the last peg in a long and messed up road that had been the life of Rado. The peg that caused him to spiral. Had she stayed put, maybe the situation would be better.

Or it may have been worse, Rado would've gone to her. This way was better. Maybe it was a stroke of luck when Ruby burst through the wall where she did. She was as far as she could have been from Rado in her situation, and in her explosive exit, she had tripped over her cape and Crescent Rose. Tumbling over a cape, a six foot folded weapon and falling because your blinded by the roses caused by, well Ruby thought it was her semblance, but it was more of just pure aura.

At least this way she had a weapon. That was how Blake rationalized it, until she realized something was very wrong. Ruby didn't get back up, she lay on the ground, on her side, her cape slightly covering her and her weapon laying next to her. He back was facing the thing she needed to get up and use. She was breathing heavily and her eyes were closed. The rise and fall of her chest were fast and erratic, she was in no position to protect herself from the crazy person not more than twenty feet away from her.

Blake's eyes widened, she unsheathed her Gambol Shroud, and jumped through the slightly open window. She landed on the ground between Ruby and Rado, weapon at the ready. Blake frowned, she needed to get to Ruby, but she needed to keep the man away from her leader as well. So she stood in front of a man holding a spear, and a sword that was covered in blood. "So, Gunegu, not who she thought you were, are you?" _Get his attention off Ruby_. It worked. The man lunged, blood dripping off the sword part of his weapon as he ran. He thrust the bloodied sword through her stomach

* * *

5:00p.m.

Yang was walking back to her friends, the police had driven away, the cops in this area of Vale weren't too smart. She wasn't expecting Blake's coordinates to send so fast, but they did, her scrol beeped, and she looked down. She copied the coordinates and put them into a sort of GPS application on her scroll.

"Blake found her" Yang looked up at her remaining friends, "She found Ruby."

* * *

5:30p.m.

Tumbling through a wall hurt. It really hurt. Her aura protected her, but the last of her stamina drained. All she could do was lay there. Her breath came in short, fast gasps, and she vaugly felt the weight of her cape. She heard something hit the ground behind her, but the panic was still working its black magic and she felt sluggish and slow. What she heard next was nothing short of a miracle,

"So, Gunegu, not who she thought you were, are you?" She didn't process the words, only the voice, _Blake?_

The words slowly processed however and her mind started racing and the panic started rebuilding itself. She heard a stabing noise, and her mind stopped computing outside information, the panic threatened to stop her heart.

* * *

Yang ran, she knew her friends were keeping up with her, but the only thought on her mind was getting to Her sister. She ran through the streets of Vale, following the directions given to her until she reached the right building. She didn't stop to wait for her friends to catch up, she opened the door and bolted inside just in time to see the man Gunegu/Rado, whatever his name truly was, stab a bloodied sword into Blake's stomach.

The dark haired girl flickered and disapeared too fast for Yang to worry, instead she watched her friend jump and attack the man during his moment of confusion.

This was the only moment she needed, he may have lied about his name, but she wasn't about to risk the probability that he might be telling the truth about his years of experience. She lunged and fired from Ember Celica, hitting him square in the back before he could retaliate. Almost on autopilot, she switched places with Weiss, who she realized had been right on her heel the whole time. While Weiss and Blake took on the insane man, Yang rushed to her little sister, Who lay on the ground.

 _Ruby hated Grimm Day, was it still Grimm day? What day was Grimm Day on? Where was she? What was she supposed to be doing? Why? Did she do something wrong? Did she crash through a wall again? Where was Yang? Or Weiss? Wasn't Blake here? Was that even Blake? Who was Blake again? And for that matter, who was Weiss? What was this called? Oh right shock... Why was she in shock?_

 _Maybe because she crashed through a wall... Again. Oh so she did crash through a wall... Why did she do that? The room... It was really small. That's why, the small room. The anxiety. The panic attacks the-_

"Ruby!"

 _Who was that? What did she want? Why? Oh yea she crashed through a wall, who was there? Why was that person-_

"Ruby! Hey, Rubes!"

 _Who was Rubes? Was that her? Who was 'her'? Wait... Her is me... I'm her, I'm Ruby. The only people who call me Rubes are Dad and..._

Ruby pulled herself out of her delirium and stared up at her sister, her lilac eyes rimmed with scarlet, but laced with worry.

"Yang?" She questioned, why did her head suddenly hurt? Yang looked down at her sister, but some of the Red had left her eyes,

"Ruby? Are you okay?" Yang was here, Yang always fixed things. Yang was the bully repellent. The protector of all things Ruby. For the first time since waking up, the panic, the claustrophobia, the anxiety, the shock, faded away and she could think clearly again.

"Ruby?"

Ruby sat up, the dull pounding in her head leaving entirely, the room was big open. There was blood. So much blood. A man was laying dead, did she do that? No, she'd been stuck in a room for... How long? Who cared at that point?

Ruby had meant to tell her sister she was okay, fine even, but at the sight of the dead young man, all that escaped her mouth was

"What...?" She was immidietly smothered by her big sister, but Ruby wasn't stupid, a bit naïve maybe, but she knew enough to realize Yang was shielding her from the sight.

"Yang, I'm okay." She pulled away from her worried sister and spoke, "I'm fine." The sounds of weapons colliding drew her attention, it always did. Weiss, and Blake were fighting that man, Gunegu. Wait didn't she hear Blake say something about that not being his name? She felt a tug and looked down, Yang had attached her clape onto her dress. The cross pins were in exactly the right place. Right where Yang hated them to be, put at an angle.

Next thing she knew, Yang was helping her stand up. That's when Ruby fully snapped out of it. Without a word, she looked for, and found Crescent Rose. Picking up her treasured weapon she moved quickly, before Yang could protest. Rose petals fluttered to the ground.

The sound of Ruby running with an unfolded Crescent Rose filled the air, distracting the three combatants,

"what!?" Rado yelled and barely blocked the scythe crashing down on him with both his bloody sword, and spear but he failed, and felt the attack being absorbed by his aura. Aura that had been depleted by the fight with the other imbisile children.

he would estimate it to be about half its usual state. And that's when a girl wearing golden armor slammed into him. His weapon, every part of it, flew from his grasp and he flew towards the wall. Pyrrah stood there, standing strong and tall, hand outstretched in the man's direction. As she no longer controlled his weapons, but instead the metal in his clothing, the weapon parts clattered to the floor. Ren and Jaune stood behind her, one could only guess where Nora was.

Jaune looked at Red and told him something, the quiet boy smiled and walked forward, standing next to Pyrrah. He raised his hand as well, while Pyrrah had her right hand raised, Ren raised his left.

Everyone in the building watched in amazement at the man slowly fell unconscious. Once he was out, PR lowered their hands, and the sleeping form fell to the ground.

"He's only sleeping." Ren clarified, noticing the looks of mixed relief and horror from team RWBY.

"Oh. Cool." Yang shrugged and looked at Ruby, who was staring at the dead body of Cray,

"He's..." She trailed off. She'd never seen the man before in her life, never met him, had no reason whatsoever to feel sorry for him, but here he was, his lifeblood pouring onto the cold heartless floor, and sticking to the weapon that had killed him. The question remained, friend or foe? Blake thought it best not to delve into that right now.

The dead body seemed to slightly disturb all the teenagers, except, unnervingly, Ren, who hardly spared it a glance except when he was looking in that direction.

"His aura is gone." Was all he'd said on the subject. In a monotonous voice, almost like it was a normal thing he was used to seeing, how he knew that, only the rest of his team knew, but it was rather creepy to think about, to say the least.

Nora came bouncing in with the police. Probably the doing of team JNPR, because RWBY had been a little too preoccupied to call the police during the time. The five police officers seemed a little weirded out by the girl's energy, which could easily be mistaken for enthusiasm, unless you knew her well. But upon the sight, it took a few moments for them to figure out what to do. EMT's had to be called, the crazy, unconscious man had to be restrained, questions needed to be asked.

It was a little over whelming for everyone, not to mention Ruby, who at that point, just wanted to go to bed. She tuned out most of it, only answering when asked a question directly. And soon, she was aloud to go back to Beacon, and her dorm, and her bed. That is, after Yang threatened the police that she would go on a protective rampage if the press got wind of what had happened. Again she was dumbstruck by their ineptitude. A eighteen year old shouldn't be able to intimidate an officer.

So teams RWBY and JNPR returned to the building in which they lived. By then Ruby was practically walking in her sleep, Yang leading her gently by the wrist. However, about half way across the campus, Ozpin walked up to the group and casually asked Yang to speak with him, and Glynda, in private.

She shoved Ruby's wrist into Weiss' grasp. The scythe wielder probably didn't even notice, her eyes were half closed, and she wasn't actively processing outside information. Ren had told the group that she was okay, just exaughted, dehydrated, and hungry.

The group entered the common erea of the dorm room to find it deserted. Made sense since it was Monday night, there may not have been school that day, but there was the next. Weiss lead Ruby to the couch and the exhausted girl practically fell into it. "I'll make her some food." Pyrrah offered, and the girls looked up at her gratefully, except for Ruby, who was out cold.

twenty minutes later, Nora had woken Ruby up, Yang had come back, and everyone was sitting on the couch watching the tv, and eating soup. Forty minutes later, and Yang was carrying Ruby to their dorm room and putting her in bed. An hour later and teams JNPR and RWBY were asleep in their beds.

* * *

Back at Beacon's Initiation Day

Qrow was an instructor for the initiation at beacon. Using his semblance, he was flying high above the trees, waiting for the students to be launched. Soon, he could hear them flying through the air.

He expected to see Yang and Ruby during the time, which was why he was in Crow form, so they wouldn't recognize him. What he didn't expect was his niece flying strait into him. He was too startled to do anything as she screeched,

"BIRDIE NOOOOOOOOOO!"

But soon after, he struggled out of her way and regained his balance in the air, _crazy kid_. She was just like him when he first came to Beacon. Minus the hitting her Uncle who was in bird form while flying through the sky after being launched over a giant forest, and not realizing it was her uncle, part.

He was plenty amused however, when he noticed a kid in pretty horrible armor spiraling out of control through the air. This was going to be an interesting year.

* * *

That Time Weiss Found the Tracker in Yang's Scroll

Qrow was sitting around in a bar. He'd just finished a mission that was way too easy for the amount of money he'd been paid. He was celebrating. An alert on his scroll, however, tore him away from his drink, one of the scroll trackers in his nieces' scrolls had been removed.

The last fingerprint it had taken, belonged to Weiss Schnee. Groaning, he tapped out a message to Yang's scroll, the one in which the tracker had been removed.

The answer he got annoyed him, but he considered the conditions, give Yang access to her sister's tracker, or have it removed as well. He chose the former, and sent her a copy of the file. Groaning he downed his drink and ordered another. Yea Oz, interesting year alright.

* * *

Tuesday November 2nd

To say Ruby didn't want to go to class, was putting it lightly. To say she absolutely did not, under no circumstances, want to go to class, now that was getting warmer. Lukewarm to be exact. Ruby hated the term Lukewarm, it was literally saying, warm warm.

It was almost as bad as saying the Sahara dessert, but Ruby wasn't one to complain. She'd gotten up solely because the sheets and blankets felt heavy, like they were strangling her, and gotten dressed. Now she was sitting in homeroom staring strait at the door she'd asked the teacher to leave open. Professor Peach droned on about the classes available for the week, changes to the schedule, add ins, and more.

She decided not to take any extra classes that day, that left, histroy, easy, that leader class-workshop-thing, she was never sure why they called it both a class and a workshop, it would be fine, but she needed three sparring classes a week. It was mandatory, so she guessed she'd take one later that day. If someone reminded her to.

Luckily history was half an hour after homeroom, and the workshop was an hour and a half after that. Sparring classes were held until five o'clock in the evening, and one more at eight o'clock for kids who had classes all day.

Also Lucky, Oobleck was teaching history class that day, he left his classroom open for students to enter early, and Ruby's class was the first one he was teaching that day; he also never closed his door.

After the grueling half an hour of sitting in homeroom, she trudged to her next class, and fell asleep at the closest desk she could fall into. Aura didn't protect against panic attacks, and the ordeal of having them consecutively and for extended periods of time, heavily drains the stamina of a person for a day or two.

This is because the person's aura, to put it simply, it trying to figure out what the heck just happened to the body. And Ruby was no stranger to this.

A few minutes before class, however, Ruby found herself shaken awake by an unknown entity. Well it was more, someone tapped on her shoulder and she bolted upright in fear. Fear she couldn't place, she felt weird, jumpy, tired, she'd only spoken eight words that day, all to professor Peach, asking him to leave the door open, and saying thank you.

Looking up, she found Ren, who looked startled by her reaction. He was the second person to come into the classroom, and Ruby guessed he knew how long she'd been there. He raised a right finger to his lips before raising his left hand and held it, Palm facing towards her. At first Ruby was beyond confused, and slightly scared. Ren was quiet, not mute. Then, as she began to feel more awake, alert, calm, and focused, she began to understand.

Between that, and what the kid had done the night before, it was becoming more clear just what his semblance was. She didn't comment on it though, just whispered her thanks as he sat down next to her, concious of keeping space between the two, he figured it was her claustrophobia and anxiety working together, in hyperdrive. He set his book on the table, and Ruby realized she'd forgotten hers.

Ren didn't comment on it though, he just set the book in between them and turned to the page written on the board. At least Ruby had brought her notebook. And a pencil.

Over the course of the class, Ren had come to realize that Ruby was adept at drawing and paying attention in class. It was a learned skill, he guessed. He wished he could do that, the class was incredibly boring. He had thought about putting the teacher to sleep many times, but figured it wouldn't go over well with Ooblek, or Ozpin for that matter.

What made him nervous though, wasn't that she was drawing, it was what she was drawing. Swords converted in a dripping substance, broken weapons, of all sorts. Puddles of what Ren hoped was water. She hadn't spoken to him, just tentively borrowed his red pen. That was when Ren realized none of the drawings had water in them.

After a few minutes of listening to the rapid speech of Ooblek, Ren looked back down at Ruby's notebook. She had drawn a lake, beautifully detailed, cat tails, moss, plants, rocks, fish, birds, everything a lake would normally have, except water. The lake was filled with blood.

Soon the class was over, and the bell had rung. Ruby began to close her notebook, but Ren placed his hand in the way, not letting her close the book,

"Ruby, are you okay?" He only received a shrug. Ruby tried to close her notebook again, but Ren held his hand there, and took the book from her, he opened it and flipped to her drawings,

"Ruby, this tells me you're not okay." Ruby was avoiding his eyes now, her own staring at the door, on the other side of her friend.

"Look at me." Most of the students, and the teacher as well, had left the classroom, but he knew Jaune and Pyrrah were still there, maybe Weiss, he didn't care enough to to look around, and Ruby's eyes did move, from the door to the floor.

"Look at me." He stated, much more sternly this time, Ruby looked up at him through her hair, it was a start. He held up the drawing of the blood-lake,

"Ruby, sit down please." The girl shook her head and Ren noticed rose petals beginning to generate, she was going to run. Just as she was about to flee towards the door, Ren's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

The girl let out a strangled squeak and froze immidietly. Ren's semblance allowed him to see a rising panic attack beginning to make itself known, and he rose his right hand to calm her down. His semblance was weaker on his nondominate hand, but it worked well enough, and Ruby looked up at him nervously.

By then, Ren knew Jaune and Pyrrah were standing close by and watching, he could sense Weiss as well. The ice girl was keeping her distance though.

"Sit down." He told her again, in a soft, calm, but stern voice, and this time, she complied.

"Your not going to answer me, so I'll do it for you." He flipped through her newest and darkest drawings,

"You aren't okay, so your either going to talk to someone about it, or I'll get help from a professor." Ruby's eyes widened in disbelief, and Ren began to grow uncomfortable, this was worse then Nora on a bad day, and that was saying something. Speaking of saying,

"Say something, Ruby." Ruby looked down at the ground before sparing a glance at the door. She then looked down at Ren's feet, which seemed interesting at the time and muttered,

"I'm fine."

"No. You're not fine," he pointed at the drawings,

"This isn't fine!" Ruby flinched and shifted her feet under the chair,

"Ruby, your drawing bloodied weapons! Pools of literal blood for crying out loud! You call that fine?" Ruby nodded. And Ren gave an exasperated sigh. Pyrrah came up behind him then, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder,

"What he's trying to say, is that if you need to talk, then come to us." Ruby nodded, and looked towards the door again,

"Uh, can, can I go now?" Pyrrha sighed and nodded,

"Yes Ruby, you can go now." Rose petals fluttered to the ground. Ruby was gone.

Weiss came forward to talk to JPR, "Is she going to be okay?" The pale girl asked apprehensively, and Ren shrugged,

"Yea, probably. As long as you follow her." Weiss ran out of the room,

"Uh, she is going to be okay, right?" Jaune echoed, walking over to the two as well. Ren shrugged,

"Her aura's showing a constantly changing mental state, at this point, I have no idea." Pyrrah gave him a funny look, as no one was ever fully used to Ren's semblance, except Nora.

He had control over major states of mind. He could make someone feel as though they had more energy, or less of it. Calm panic attacks, or even give them. He could put people to sleep, but they had to wake up on their own. Unless he physically woke them up, his semblance didn't wake them up, only put them to sleep, he guessed it was a defense mechanism.

He could restore a mental state to its normal, well state, or completely invert it. He could sense aura much more clearly then the average person as well, down to who was there, and what they were feeling. His control over his semblance worked best when he used his dominate, left hand.

Its strongest when he uses both hands. However, after a traumatic experience, your state of mind changes, grows, matures, or reverts to old ways. It can even do a bit of both. The finished product becomes the new 'normal state,' the old one being no more. Ruby's mind was undergoing major changes, changes Ren had no power to stop, only bury it under temporary changes that he himself made.

That's not to say he couldn't help her, it's just that any change he makes to anyone's mental state is temporary. It's like putting a spell on someone, the longer he focuses on casting the 'spell' the longer it will last in the long run. As far as he knew, he could cause a change to stay in place for sixteen hours. But that had taken a half an hour of nonstop focus on the 'spell', he'd had to hold his hand up and in the direction of his target the whole time. A taxing, but rewarding semblance indeed. A form of mind control, a kind of mental illusion.

it also would have made him a wonderful psychiatric Doctor, had he chosen a path of medicine. It made a powerful weapon when battling people, not so much when battling Grimm. But living outside a kingdom all his life, growing up without parents, only Nora, you learn quickly, just what you need to fight, to stay alive. And sadly, it's not just Grimm. He'd learned from an early age, the world isn't all that forgiving, but at least he'd helped Nora. She still had her days though.

He'd met Nora when he was maybe two days old. Their parents had been friends, and left the kingdom of Vale together to live in a quiet village. The two grew up together, safe, and happily. Until a murderer came to their village. And it wasn't a Grimm. There was no day that he hadn't wished it was though, he could remember the day clearly. He woke up late, and thought his parents had forgotten to wake him up. They homeschooled him, and Nora's parents did the same with her, after all, they were the only two kids in the village, there was no school.

He'd walked down the stairs like it would be a normal day, come into the kitchen and screamed. Blood everywhere, his parents were only asleep, right? They needed to wake up, he had a math test that day! _Wake up mom! Dad, wake up! Please!?_ Blood, it's all over his hands. His parents, they aren't breathing. _Run! Nora, Nora can help wake them up!_ His cloths were covered in blood, his hands as well. Tears were streaming down his face as he ran to the house of his only friend. Her parents, they could wake up mom and dad, right?

No one ever knocked in his village, everyone knew each other like family, the locks were in case outsiders came to visit, but they were never used. He burst in on the family of three as they were sitting down to breakfast, covered in blood and crying. Nora had screamed, her mother gasped, her father got up and grabbed his weapon, leaving the house immidietly. Nora's mother was terminally ill, a kind of cancer the doctor had told them, she had maybe four months left to live, but when her husband came back with the news of her closest friends' deaths, she'd already devoted the last of her life to raising their child, as well as her own.

News spread quickly, a murder had taken place. Ren was taken in by the people he knew as Aunt and Uncle Valk. Four months filled with blood. Why they had never left the village was a mystery to him, Ren watched family after family disappear, later Nora found out they were killed as well, but then, she thought they were leaving town.

Three months and Nora's dad 'disapeared.' Ren remembered it, the day the dying woman had packed their things, given Nora every family heirloom she could use, put the rest in a safe and buried it, gave the girl a map to the safe, starting in Vale, and told the two to run.

She had also given Ren every one of the family heirlooms from his family as well, putting the rest in the same safe. The map was their treasure. They kept that thing under lock and key, framed in a small safe of its own.

The two families had been so intertwined, Nora had received all the heirlooms for daughters, from both families, and Ren recived the ones meant for sons. Janette Valkerie's last gift to the two had been life. And the two had never returned to their home village. They were seven then.

Nora had depression, always had. Her semblance was a good counter to that, beating away at the disorder until it rarely reared its ugly head. But as Ren knew best, she had her days. These were the times he used his semblance on his oldest friend. Either to make her sleep, or to invert her state of mind. She never knew, or maybe she did. She never said anything about it.

And that was how Ren liked it. So as he told Jaune to keep an eye on her during his leadership class, he was thinking about how bad depression could turn, and how quickly. Sometimes it only took a sentence said by someone else, a word of critisism. Once an old man had called Nora a horrible person, she'd been berating herself for the rest of the day. She was ten, and he'd just turned eleven back then.

It was just a simple matter of making sure she was never outright insulted, it really wasn't that hard, but it still happened. Even an offhand comment could become a depressive trigger. But Ren tried his best. And seeing Jaune and Ruby walk into the cafeteria after their class, together, was a breath of relief. Although, Ruby was staring at her feet and wouldn't look anyone in the eye.

To bad the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR were already here, sitting at their usual table. Maybe he could lock the two in the same room together, it might help the reaper. Ruby and Nora that is.

Or maybe they might make their own corner of depression, maybe it wasn't such a good idea. But as Nora sat, perfectly calm, if not worried, watching Ruby, Ren knew she'd caught on. It was like a radar, sometimes a depressed person finds it easier to notice the markers and identify depression, or anything very wrong, in others, at least it was good for something.

Ruby wasn't eating, she hadn't all day. She just wasn't hungry. She wanted to go back to bed, but she forced herself to sit at the table with her friends, deal with the worried stares. Tune out everything as she stared at the table top. The only problem was people. As the time droned on, more people began to fill the room, and it got loud. The large walls and high seizing started to shrink towards her, closer and closer, the noise got louder and louder, she began to panic.

A shift in her aura alerted Ren to the issue, and subtly he raised his hand under the table, and angled it at his youngest friend. He focused on calming her aura. Inverting the depressed part of her, and calming the claustrophobia. After a few minutes of focus, he stopped, it would last the rest of the day, ending at around seven o'clock. And sure enough, a few minutes later, Ruby got up and silently grabbed some food. It wasn't a complete fix, but it worked. Hopefully the rest of the day would go well.

Yang knew something was wrong. Ruby was distant and quiet all day. Not talking to anyone except the teachers, even then it was to ask them to either leave the door open, or to tell them the answer to a question when they called on her. She knew that from Weiss and team JNPR. To say she was thankful that Ruby was never alone in any of her classes was an understatement.

But she followed Ozpin's advise and, for the time being, stayed out of her sister's way. She got back to the dorm room at about two o'clock, having just taken a science class.

She walked into the room and immidietly looked around, the door was open, the window was open, so someone was here. She found Ruby in her bed, sheet covering open. The girl was staring up at the ceiling, and didn't acknowledge her sister when she entered. "Ruby?" Yang asked, dragging a desk chair over, and standing on it. Her sister sat up and looked at her. Something in the reaper's eyes unsettled the blonde, and Yang thought it best to keep quiet. She was right. Words came spilling out of Ruby, fast, quiet, and broken.

"Yang, I, I mean, there was a guy and he was, he was, and then the other guy, he, he..." Ruby was having trouble organizing her thoughts, so Yang helped her.

"You were stuck in a room all day." Ruby nodded, looking down at her bedding,

"It was quiet and dark and small..." Yang continued,

"You burst through a wall, and hear Blake." Ruby nodded again.

"Then what?" Yang asked, and Ruby shrugged,

"I was scared and then you were there, then I attacked him, he wasn't who he said he was." Ruby frowned, and Yang sighed,

"No, he lied to you, he wasn't a good person."

"He killed someone!" Ruby's yell wasn't very loud, but for the time being, she'd hardly spoken all day, it was loud for her. And Yang thought carefully about what she needed to say,

"Yes he did, but he can't hurt you anymore." Ruby shook her head,

"No, he put me in a tiny dark room, I couldn't do anything, there was no one there, just dark and quiet. I yelled and no one came, I screamed and bounded on the door, and... Nothing." She was sniffling by then, and Yang leaned over to hug her. It broke her heart when Ruby shrank away from the touch.

"Anyone can do that..." Ruby whispered to herself, just barely loud enough for Yang to hear, "anyone..." Yang sighed and left the room. She was on a mission at that point, going down the stairs and grabbing some of the cookies Ruby Weiss Nora and Pyrrah had made. She put them in a paper plate and brought them back to her little sister.

She set them on the girls bed, next to her. Before sitting at her desk and opening her science book. After a few minutes, she looked at the clock,

"Ruby, have you gone to sparring yet today?" No answer, "you need to, there aren't any sparring classes tomorrow." No answer. "It starts in twenty minutes, the class might help a little."

The tiniest of "okay"s was heard and Yang closed her book,

"let's go then." Both girls were already in their combat gear anyway. Yang had to practically bribe Ruby to get out of her bed/fort, and at the speed the girl was going, the two arrived in class just in time. Glynda gave the girls a questioning glance, and Yang stared back in an unspoken challenge, if the woman was curious enough, she would ask Ruby herself.

* * *

"Okay class, today I'm choosing your matches to see how you perform against certain fighting styles, first we have," Glynda looked down at her notes, before looking around the class, "Lie Ren, against, Cardin Winchester." Yang hadn't realized that Ren was in the room until his name was called, but watched intently as he and Cardin walked down to the arena. "Do the two of you agree to the rules of the match?" Glynda asked, and once she recived two nodds from the boys, she raised her hand, "begin." The whistle blew.

Cardin wasted no time in racing towards Ren, mace drawn and at the ready. He began to close in when Ren simply dogged. Jumping up and over the bully and landing behind him. Cardin quickly turned and attacked again, but each time the resoult was the same. After a few moments, Ren jumped farther away then Cardin could reach in time, he deployed Storm Flower and held them in a false stance. It looked like he was waiting for Cardin to attack, but in reality, he was already attacking Cardin. With both hands raised, his semblance could work much better then just one, even though it was usually much less subtle.

Cardin stopped in his tracks. "What's going on?" The brash boy yelled, looking around in dazed, almost tired like, and definitely panicked confusion, Ren took that moment to attack. He had drained Cardin, effectively inverting his state of mind, it would last thirty seconds. And Ren used that time to the fullest. With Cardin tired and slow, Ren easily outpaced him, landing successful hit after hit, and easily dogging all of Cardin's attacks. Twenty seconds later and Cardin's aura was at ten percent. Ren's at ninety-five, he had won.

The next match was Coco Adel, and Asoka Akira. The two made their way down to the ring. The match between the older students began. And it was fast, Coco deployed her weapon and bagan shooting as Asoka deployed his and ran around her, dogging what he could, and blocking the rest. His dual swords attached, giving him a double ended sword. He got in close and, Smack! Landed in a few good hits, knocking Coco's aura down a forth, before she folded her weapon into a very dense, and very heavy, box-like bag. She batted him away, draining a third of his aura.

Thirty seconds had passed. Soon Asoka was on offense, Coco wasn't as adept at close range fighting, but he was, as long as he could stay out of range of her weapon, but within two feet of her, it was a sinch. Soon she had a forth of her aura left, and Asoka had half. In the next twelve seconds though, everything changed, Coco jumped upwards and backwards, flying through the air as far as she could. Before Asoka could react, and while she was still airborn, she deployed her weapon, and released a round of highly pressurized and very powerful dust. Asoka could only block two of them before his aura drained to five percent and the match ended.

"That was pretty good." Yang tried to get Ruby talking, but the girl stared strait ahead at the ring, watching as the kids shook hands and walked back to the stands, Glynda called up the next two,

"Sky Lark, and Ruby Rose." Ruby cringed, and slowly stood up. She made her way down to the ring and Sky did the same.

"Good luck!" Yang yelled, and right after Glynda had asked them for their agreement to the rules, Lark had given a thumbs up, and Ruby had nodded. Halberd against Scythe, the whistle blew.

Whereas Ruby usually let Crescent Rose curl around her back in an open stance, today she held it in a backwards grip, curling it around her front, and taking on a closed off manner. Her face showed no outward emotion, but even after the whistle blew, she had yet to move. Lark had no idea what to do, he was used to waiting for the opponent to make the first move, and usually Ruby did just that. Apprehensively he raised his halberd against Ruby and took a few steps forward. He found himself flying backwards and Ruby jumped into action, hitting him far away from her.

He flew backwards, but used the staff of his weapon to catch himself, and fired a round from his weapon. Ruby spun her scythe and dissipated the round easily before shooting her own, fire dust flew towards him and exploded, causing him to fly backwards, and Ruby still hadn't moved an inch. Lark stood up and realized he was close to a stadium out, it didn't help that his aura was half depleted. He tried to get closer to the middle of the ring, where Ruby stood. Every time he got close, or even shot a round at her, she batted him away or dissipated his attacks.

Within a minute, he flew out of the stadium. Ruby still hadn't moved an inch. The whistle blew, "class, Sky Lark has lost to a stadium out, his aura is also dangerously low, however, we would call this out of bounds because it is more prevalent." Why the workings of calling how the person lost mattered was lost on most of the class, but it didn't matter, "well done, miss Rose, please return to your seats." Ruby trudged back to her seat, no rose petals lay on the ring for others to step over, no overly enthusiastic reaper giggling with her friends after winning a match, she just sat down next to her sister and watched the rest of the matches.

* * *

Five thirty, Tuesday night, the group was sitting around in the common area, eating various microwaved foods over the counter. Nora sat on the counter next to Ren who leaned over it, his food sitting next to her as her own sat in her lap. Jaune was sitting on the floor against the counter, Pyrrah stood next to him and held her food in her hands, Ruby doing the same, but next to her, Yang, sat on the island, Blake leaned against it, her food in her hands as well, her back to the island she leaned on. Weiss had pulled over a chair and was sitting at it, her food placed on an actual plate, and not looking at all microwaved. She had refused to eat out of the microwaveable dish, but the fact that she was eating it at all was a step.

Ren knew that Ruby's mind would escape its subdued state in a few hours and had told Yang about it. The blonde had told him she had an easy fix for it, and put sleeping pills into Ruby's cup of juice. Ren shivered, slightly glad Nora had never done anything like that, to his knowledge. Maybe she had, and that thought freaked him out a little.

Not much was spoken, usual chit-chat, but that was about it, Yang knew she'd dogged a bullet, Ruby didn't touch her food, but she drank all her half an hour, the reaper was fighting sleep, leaning against the counter with her eyes closed. The front door was left open, and Yang had gotten permission from the school to put in a screen in the beginning of the year, her argument was that a screen was cheaper to replace then a door, and her sister was really bad at not plunging through doors in her haste to get somewhere.

The screen had only been replaced once, and not because of Ruby.

"Everyone ready for that field trip tomorrow?" Jaune asked, watching Ruby fight against the sleeping pills, Blake groaned and Nora screeched a

"you bet!" Jolting Ruby awake just as she was about to lose the battle with sleep. Yang shrugged,

"dunno, it could be fun." Weiss looked exited,

"I've always wanted to see forever-fall, it's supposed to be beautiful in the summer." Yang looked over at her teammate in confusion,

"Uh Weiss, the forest of forever fall looks the same all year." Weiss folded her arms and harrumphed, staying out of the conversation for the rest of its duration.

The conversation stopped short when, next to Ren, Ruby lost the battle with sleep, and Ren narrowly missed catching her before she hit the ground. He lowered her to it, and looked up. Six pairs of eyes stared back at him, "it wasn't me this time." He held his hands up in surrender, "I swear." Yang shrugged,

"I should've had you do it, but this isn't the first time I've drugged my sister." She said it so nonchalantly that soon everyone was looking at her in disbelief,

"Awkward..." Nora laughed at her own joke. But at least Ruby was sleeping.

"You tell her about the pills, and I'll kill you all." The blonde stated.

Yang had grabbed a throw pillow off the couch for Ruby, but other then that, she was drugged, and sleeping on the floor, while her friends ate cookies.

"She'll be okay down there right?" Weiss had asked, and Yang waved her hand,

"She'll be fine, there was this one time where she fell asleep in a tree, in the middle of the night, and almost got eaten by a Nevermore." Weiss had decided then that Patch was too dangerous to visit, ever.

"Why was she in a tree?" Nora asked, looking down at her youngest friend, Yang shrugged again,

"I don't know. Guess she felt the walls were to close to each other again. That was the first of many times, our dad built a platform with railings in the tree outside our house so she wouldn't fall. Why there was a Nevermore on Patch, is a better question."

To Yang, this was normal, to everyone else, it was the weirdest thing ever. But no one commented on it, and seven thirty rolled around, "anyone want to get that late night sparring class in?" Yang asked, and nodds were given all around. Everyone except Pyrrah ran off, she didn't want to take any more classes that day, but she failed to realize she was stuck with Ruby, asleep on the kitchen floor, until everyone else was gone.

Groaning she picked up her tiny friend and carried her up the stairs. Team RWBY's room was closed and locked. Pyrrah groaned and opened the door to her room. She set Ruby in her own bed and sat at her desk to do some homework until her friends got back. It was a peaceful two hours and Pyrrah got some good leeway into the homework she needed to get done. Nora bounced in first, two hours had gone by, but she stopped short,

"Why's Ruby asleep in your bed?" She asked Pyrrah, who didn't look up from her books,

"Her room's locked, I couldn't put her in there, and last time I heard, and saw, she sleeps on a top bunk."

"Oh." Was all Nora said, and soon Yang had come in and collected her little sister.

"Why hasn't anyone done anything about Ruby?' Nora began to bounce on her bed, Ren was laying down and reading on his, and Jaune sat at his desk messing with his scroll, their door was closed. Team dynamics of JNPR were kind of skewed, Jaune was the official leader, he made all the major calls, but for advise, you went to Pyrrah for information, because frankly, Jaune is about as clueless as it gets.

"Because," Pyrrah searched for words, "we're waiting to see if she can bounce back." She chose her words carefully, but had no way of knowing Nora's parrellels to the situation, the two childhood friends had never told anyone. Maybe they would if Nora had a bad day, but so far that hadn't happened. Nora stopped bouncing,

"And how do you know if she won't?" Nora posed a good question, one that hit very close to Ren, he remembered asking it when his aunt Valkerie explained Nora's depression to him, he'd asked her if Nora would get better, she had replied that it wasn't just being sad, that it was a little more then that. His answer had been that exact question.

He stopped reading and looked up at Pyrrah, wondering if he'd get an answer now, when he hadn't ten years ago. Pyrrah again struggled with her words.

"You don't. I guess you just know when it's too bad for the person to deal with on her own." Pyrrah looked to Ren for help with her answer, but his look told her he had nothing to add. It was more then he'd recived back then, he was satisfied for now. Nora wasn't though,

"No." She stopped jumping on her bed and flopped backwards onto it before finishing her thought, "it's always easier when you help the person from the start." Ren presumed that she posed a good point as well.

* * *

Wednesday, November 3rd

Ruby didn't remember falling asleep. She didn't remember even going to her dorm. She did however, curse her sister to a horrible hair day when the older girl woke her up. The reason, as it turned out, was a feild trip to Forest Forever Fall.

So she dragged herself out of bed, and dropped to the ground. She got dressed as quickly as she could, which was incredibly fast with the help of her semblance, and walked to the common area.

She didn't really want to do anything, just sat down in the couch with her own thoughts. Yang, always attentive to her little sister, used her absence to send a message to her uncle. But Ruby had no knowledge of it then.

Blake came into the room and handed Ruby a granola bar, the girl excepted it and opened it slowly. The time crawled slowly by as Ruby nibbled at the food presented to her. Other first year students filtered into the room sitting at the tables, or hanging around in the kitchenette.

Blake sat and stared strait ahead while Ruby stared at her granola bar. Not a word was spoken, for that Ruby was grateful, but she was also grateful for the silent companionship she found in her teammate but all too soon, it was time to meet Professor Goodwitch in the front of the school.

So off teams RWBY and JNPR went, to a new, adventure, whether the reaper wanted to, or not.

* * *

Forever Fall was beautiful. Ruby admitted that to herself as she walked silently through it, her team spread out around her. Yang had already found a tree to collect sap, the main objective for the trip, Blake was standing next to her, glaring at the blonde for a joke no one else heard, but it wasn't rocket science to know that it was some form of pun. It always was. Weiss was doing the same as Ruby, albeit with a more confident gate.

Team JNPR was doing the same, Ren and Nora had found a tree, Pyrrah and Jaune were searching around for another as Ren had to keep refilling the jars. Nora kept eating them.

"Ruby, Weiss, hand me your jars." Yang called, and Weiss took the jar from Ruby before walking over and handing it, as well as her own to the blonde. They had three hours to spend in the forest. If they turned in their jars early, they had more free time.

Which was the only reason Ren was annoyed at Nora's shenanigans. Ruby decided everyone would be fine without her. It's not like they'd even notice if she was missing, right? So she wandered farther into the forest, listening to the sounds of the wind in the leaves, and the crows in the trees. This was her uncle's favorite place in all of Vale.

She remembered him taking her and her sister out to the forest all the time. She remembered her mom and dad going as well. But after Summer had died, it'd just been Qrow, trying to keep everything as familiar as possible for the girls who'd just lost a mother.

Maybe, with any luck, she could find the same clearing that the family used to visit. _It should be somewhere around here..._ The waterfalls, Ruby remembered those. Just a little farther, she walked along, almost immune to the sound of the pounding water as its rhythm matched the harsh beating of her heart.

 _The clearing... It should be just up ahead..._ She burst out of the trees and into the familiar clearing, only to stop short, team CRDL had taken over the clearing she had grown up visiting. _Just can't catch a break..._ It was too late though, the group had noticed her.

Team CRDL was lazing around, they'd gotten their sap, and sat in the clearing, relaxing. But upon the reaper's arrival, they all looked up, "uh, hi?" Ruby tried to force a nervous smile, but it didn't reach her lips.

Cardin stood up. Even on a bad day, which it was, Ruby was capable of defeating every member of the team of bullys, but all four of them at once? Ruby didn't dare overestimate her own ability. She stood still as Cardin stood up, standing her ground against the much taller, and older, student.

"Watcha doin in our little clearing?" The boy was obviously trying to intimidate her, it wouldn't work. Most of CRDL looked intimidated by _her_. But what did it matter anyway? Mind as well tell the truth,

"I used to come here," she motioned to the clearing as she spoke, "with my family." Cardin laughed, a cruel laugh,

"Oh really? Then what, you got too old to go on _family trips?_ " His smart alecy retort was met with a serious answer,

"No, my mom died." Her voice took on a monotonous tone, and her face showed no emotion. The whole atmosphere seemed to drop with those four words, and Carding had trouble finding words to say. Even a bully had his moments.

Ruby knew her negative emotions had been attracting Grimm, all day she could feel them in the shadows, threatening to swarm her. Why they hadn't was a mystery to her, she wished they had, then either she could kill them, or rid herself entirely of this foreign emptyness and over all jumpy-ness that she'd been feeling for the last few days. But now was as good a time as any, she supposed. Too bad it wouldn't happen until, "hey Ruby, everyone's been looking for you!" Jaune came running into the clearing,

"How'd you..?" Ruby started, before looking behind her. She hadn't been using her semblance, but there they were, clear as day, rose petals, real as can be, and stained scarlet with the emotions Ruby felt to strongly to give words to. _Had she been generating rose petals all day?_

Who really knew? Most likely anyone besides her. The bully team seemed just as surprised by Jaune's entrance as Ruby, and so did an unwelcome attacker. The Ursa barged through the tree line and into the clearing. It batted team CRDL out of the way, leaving only the leader standing. The rest of team-bird-brains got up and fled the scene, leaving only Cardin, Jaune and Ruby.

The two latter students drew their weapons. Cardin was too close to the Alfa Grimm to do anything before being smacked out of the way, his aura depleting in one hit. That left only Ruby and Jaune against the Ursa. And as far as Ruby had seen, Jaune wasn't much of a plus.

But she didn't get to do much other than give the creature an unceremonious hit before it slammed her into the ground. Her aura didn't even get a change to protect her and she landed in a pile of rose petals. At that moment, rose petals began to generate everywhere, flying through the air and making it hard for Jaune to see anything.

Unbeknownst to him, Pyrrah and Weiss stood at the edge of the clearing. The defense Ruby's semblance put up to protect her unconscious body filtered away, leaving a carpet of scarlet petals covering the entire clearing. You couldn't discern the reapers blood from the petals if you tried. But the metal-like smell alerted everyone in the vincinity of its presence.

No one cared that Cardin had fled during the Rose storm, they were all focused on the unconscious Ruby and the battle ready Jaune. The sword wielder didn't stand a chance, his form was untrained and rough in style.

But almost like magic, his forms seemed to correct themselves, allowing him to give a devastating hit, and finally behead his own Alfa Grimm, albeit much less incredible then Ruby's, and with a lot of subtle help from Pyrrah. He had finally taken his place among the hunters and huntresses in training. So he stood panting, in awe of what he'd done, when Ruby's condition burst to the forefront of his mind, "Ruby!" He yelled and bolted to her side.

He dropped to his knees and assessed her injuries. Blood seeped from a wound in her side, leaving her to rest in a pool of her own blood, as well as the thick and overly dense carpet of rose petals, the scarlet hues matching perfectly. But her aura was already working to heal her, she wasn't in any immediate danger of bleeding out. From out of seemingly nowhere, Pyrrah and Weiss came running over,

"Is she okay?" Weiss seemed pretty worried, but Pyrrah looked calm and composed,

"It's okay, the bleeding' already stopped, but we need to get her to Professor Goodwitch."

Jaune nodded and allowed the girls to help him get their youngest companion onto his shoulders to be carried back to their starting point. About halfway back to the bullhead they'd arrived on, Glynda Goodwitch could be seen, along with Yang and the rest of teams JNPR and RWBY; team CRDL was nowhere to be found. Ruby was brought back to Beacon early, and during her unconscious state, was taken to the infirmary.

She would stay there until she woke up, and the rest of team RWBY, having completed their objectives, as well as hers, came as well, allowing Yang to meet up with a very important visitor.


	4. New Arrivals, Vacations, and the Killer

A/N: Welcome back. this chapter was origionally chapters 13-16

* * *

RWBY

Wednesday, November 3rd

Ruby hated hospitals. They were to bright, and her uneasiness when there always made her semblance go into hyperdrive, but when she woke up, she came to the realization that she wasn't in a hospital. She was in Beacon's infirmary, and Weiss and Blake could be heard talking with the nurse outside the door. But how had she gotten there in the first place?

She thought about it for a moment. Forever Fall Forest... Team CRDL... THE URSA! Ruby shot into a sitting position, the events earlier that day coming back to her in flashes.

She had wanted to die, or at least be anywhere but with the people she thought wouldn't notice her absence. If she disapeared, no one would notice, right? She'd gone off on her own to find a clearing she'd grown up visiting, but team CRDL was there. And for some reason, Jaune was there.

No, he'd come looking for her, at least one person dared. Then, the Ursa alpha attacked. Team CRDL had been put out for the count, it was actually a bit funny remembering how fast they'd run away. Then she remembered her sloppy attempt to slay a beast of darkness, while her own mind was filled to the brim with it as well.

Frankly, she hadn't been in her right mind for days now. And why was that? She struggled to remember, and when she did, her whole world slipped a little from its newfound platform. She wasn't given time to think about it though, because the door opened, and Yang came in with the person Ruby had wanted to see since the first of the month.

For three days. Had it only been three days? Ruby felt like she was drowning in a pit where time didn't matter, but her entire demeaner lifted upon the sight of her beloved, Uncle Qrow.

"Hey kid." Qrow sat down in a chair next to the bed Ruby was sitting in,

"Yang tells me you've been a little... Distant, lately." The man looked at her intently, but Ruby could see the worry, poorly hidden behind his scarlet eyes. She barely noticed Yang leave the room, closing the door behind her. Qrow leaned forward,

"You know what I hear?" He asked his uncharacteristicly quiet niece, "I hear you got caught up with old Rado." Ruby's eyes widened, "he and I never really got along." Qrow spoke as though the memories were distant and unimportant, "Maybe it's not a coincidence he fell off his high horse."

The man continued, he could tell from the expression on Ruby's face that he had her full attention, "I've heard the shenanigans pulled by that team of bird brained first years, team CRDL is a good name for them." Qrow laughed at his own joke, and was inwardly delighted when Ruby gave a genuine, if not small, smile.

"So," he got down to business, the reason why Yang had called him, "I hear your claustrophobia' gotten worse." Ruby nodded, "and what of the panic attacks?" He had been there when Ruby had her first panic attack, Her parents hadn't known what to do, soon everyone was panicking, and Ruby passed out. She'd been three. later that year, her mother had died.

They had taken her to Patch's only emergency room, and the doctor there had taught the adults, and Yang, who had just turned seven, how to help the girl through what would be many more. It turned out, what had brought on the panic attack was sitting in a car for the first time. That was also the day they found out she had claustrophobia. In the present though, Ruby just shrugged, she wasn't in the mood for talking to anyone, not even her uncle, Qrow frowned,

"You know kid, we could get you a Prescription for anti-anxiety medca-"

"No!" Ruby interrupted with a shout, the first word she'd said since she woke up. Qrow was taken back, but then again, if he remembered correctly, the last time she'd tried a medication, it had just made things worse. Much, much worse.

"Then," Qrow said slowly, "what's the problem kid? what have I always told you?" Ruby looked down at the covers, tying to straitened them out the best she could,

"What was it Ruby?" Ruby shrugged, so Qrow recalled the words he used so often with his nieces, "I told you to never stop moving forward, didn't I? Always push through your problems, don't let them sit, do something to fix it. Even if it's forcing yourself to be happy, just don't pretend nothing's wrong, because something definitely is, don't stop moving forward, and if you need to, talk to someone. Talk to me."

He added that last part with a hint of remorse, he should've known that something was wrong with his niece, he had raised the two while Tai was out for the count after Summer died. What had that been, three or four years of learning how to raise children and take care of an emotionally distraught man, all by himself.

Even when Taiyang picked himself up, Qrow knew more about the kids than their own father did, he stuck around until Ruby started going to Signal. He still lived in the house, he just returned to his teaching job, and began going on missions again. Tai was never the same, too overprotective, Qrow hated to admit that he wasn't very adept at knowing his own daughters.

But at least the man was trying, telling Tai about this, though, would be a bad idea, he'd pull Ruby out of the school so fast you wouldn't even be able to day 'semblance.' Ruby looked up at him,

"I'm trying uncle Qrow. But it's not working, I only feel worse." Now he was getting somewhere,

"Then." He formulated his thoughts before speaking, "then talk to people, don't sit and suffer in isolation, trust me." He leaned backwards in the chair, "it doesn't work." Seeing the look on his niece's face, he continued, "it'll be hard for a while, but it'll get easier, just wait and see."

He stood up to leave, but stopped and turned around, a stern look commanding his features, "and no fighting Grimm until it gets easier." He told her, before coming over and ruffling her hair, "I want to see your sixteenth birthday." He turned to leave again, "see ya soon kid. I've got an important mission." Ruby watched him go, and just as he opened the door, her voice, small, and broken, but slowly healing, whispered,

"Bye, Uncle Qrow."

* * *

Team JNPR walked up to WBY just as Qrow exited the room, "Hey Firecracker," the old man spoke, stopping momentarily, "Next time, tell me sooner, would ya?" He asked in a slightly pained voice before ruffling her hair as well, "Take care of your sister, okay? And don't push her."

"Got it, Qrow." Yang never used the 'Uncle' title with the man, it didn't feel right to her, and Qrow didn't mind.

"Who was that?" Pyrrah asked, after the man had left, "our Uncle." Yang said nonchalantly before going to get Ruby out of the room. the girl probably wanted to get out of her blood soaked clothing.

"That was her uncle?" Jaune asked in disbelief. He'd been told that the man had practically raised the two, but he smelled like he'd had a late night at the bar.

It made sense though, with Yang's habits. Yang came out of the room with Ruby in tow, and the six teens waiting for the two imidietly noticed a difference in the fourteen year old's demeanor, she was standing up a little straiter, and her face wasn't studying the floor anymore.

She still, however, trailed behind her sister, letting the older girl suffice as a sort of shield. It would be a long walk back to the dorms.

* * *

Friday, November 13th

Ruby had been doing much better since Qrow's visit, not perfect, but better. Currently however, no one knew where she was. Team JNPR and WBY were in a sparring class. Where Ruby was, was a mystery to them, she was supposed to be in the class with them.

Ren was sparring Nora, and it was interesting to say the least. Nora's hyperactive semblance could counteract Ren's simply by pulling electricity out of the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The two knew each other inside out.

Halfway through the match, Ruby walked into the classroom and handed Glynda a note. The woman nodded at the girl, before Ruby turned and sat down near the back of the classroom in one of the last open seats. The match between Ren and Nora ended when they both simultaneously dropped to fifteen percent. Glynda looked at her watch,

"Alright class, we have time for a few more, and it is Friday, anyone who wishes to stay later and continue the class after the bell is welcome to. Ms. Rose, could you please enter the ring?" Ruby nodded, it was only fair since she'd come in late, note or no note.

"Class, would anyone like to spar Ms. Rose?" A few hands raised,

"Ms. Adel, very well, please try not to kill anyone." Ruby and her scythe walked down to meet Coco and her hand bag. Taking a defensive stance, Coco noted the way Ruby stood. Last time she'd sparred in the same class, it had been against that Lark kid, she had been closed off and defensive.

Today her scythe curled a over her head, arching around her and framing her as she took on neither defensive, nor offensive stance. Ruby was ready for a fight. So Coco Adel would give her one.

Coco, weapon and all, was at a disadvantage against the reaper. Her weapon gave her little of her needed manuverability, her best chance would be to do what Ruby had done last time, stay in the middle. Coco finished planning, and the whistle blew.

Ruby disapeared in a cloud of telltale rose petals. Those hadn't been around last time either. The second year waisted no time in getting herslf to the center of the ring. Where she stood as the rose petals flew faster and faster.

She was inside what the student body collectively called, 'The Rose Storm' she deployed her Gatling Gun and began shooting in a circle. Soon the roses began to continue to fly as Ruby materialized, swirling her scythe to dissipate the attack.

The rose petals showed no sign of falling to the ground just yet though, as Ruby began an unpredictable zigzagging movement around the entire ring. Suddenly, the rose cloud was shooting dust at her. Ruby was shooting from Crescent Rose, but she was still flitting around inside the petal clouds.

Ruby had effectively lasted one minute against the overpowered second year. Coco's Aura depleted five percent from the one dust bullet she'd failed to block.

Other then that, neither party had lost any aura just yet. Glynda looked down at her watch before continuing to watch the match. Coco started to aim her shots, shooting right in front of the head of the cloud.

Every time though, the cloud would stop for a jiffy, then flit off in a different direction. It was ultimately agrivating. Suddenly Ruby was behind Coco, then Coco was on the ground.

Ruby had used her massive scythe not only to deplete some of Coco's aura, but to sweep the older girl off her feet and onto the ground. Coco was at eighty-seven percent. It was time to get back at the red and black blur, Coco decided, but her weapon was fairly limited, she usually fought other long range fighters for this very reason. Simple solution, Coco folded her weapon into a hand bag, and regained her footing.

She'd gotten ready to land a hit on Ruby when the girl swung her scythe towards the older team leader, a shot was heard, and Ruby exploded in rose petals. Coco managed to dodge out of the way, and unfolded her weapon yet again, now the girl was in the perfect position, Coco bagan to fire. She hit her target, multiple times, and Ruby's aura depleted by half. The reaper jumped out of the way before more damage could be done.

However, even with Ruby's semblance, Coco still managed to get more hits in, dodge after dodge failed for Ruby, and frustration snuck its way onto the younger girl's face. It didn't matter though, Ruby's aura had dropped below fifteen percent, Coco had won. The whistle blew, and Ruby stood up from where she had been knocked back by the sheer power of Coco's gun. The older girl was smiling, sunglasses in hand.

"Nice going kid, you had me for a moment." Coco said, smile ever present. Ruby gave back her own, "oh, uh, thank you." Social awkwardness and praise never mixed well. But Coco didn't comment on it, just patted the girl on the back, not missing the flinch she recived, before turning to join her teammate's on a bench close to the ring. Ruby smiled to herself before looking around. She spotted her friends and walked towards them.

* * *

Later that day, Weiss walked into the dorm room to find Yang doing homework, and Ruby, asleep in her sheet-fortress-death-trap,

"That kid amazes me." Weiss muttered and put her rapier on her desk,

"hmm?" Yang asked, only half listening to the heiress' speech,

"one moment it's running and rose petals, and the next." She waved her hand at the quiet snores coming from the death-trap before walking off into the bathroom.

"What was that?" Yang asked looking up from her book as the bathroom door closed behind Weiss.

Yang had no idea what Qrow had told Ruby, but soon after he'd left, and Yang had taken Ruby back to their room, the girl's entire demeanor had changed, ever so slightly. Qrow had given her intructions not to push her little sister, that the soon to be fifteen year old would pick herself up, it would just take some time.

The last week and a half, Ruby would regularly disappear, but Yang didn't worry because her scroll tracker showed a restaurant that they always used to go to with Qrow. Speaking of soon to be fifteen, in two days, Ruby would have her birthday.

Yang had told the other members of team RWBY and JNPR as well, But other then that, Yang had no idea what they would do. Maybe the two teams would go out for dinner or something.

Weiss came out of the bathroom, hair wet, and wearing her white dress with black accents, muttering something about horrendous water pressure. She sat on her bed, below the snoring death trap, and began to put her hair into its normal set-up.

All was quiet in the dorm of team RWBY, too quiet really. Across the way, a thud sounded, and Nora could be heard laughing through the open door, a normal uccurance that all first years were used to by then. The day slowly came to a close, until Weiss' scroll beeped. The heiress looked at it, then turned off her scroll.

"Courting rich guy?" Yang joked, and Weiss glared at her, "no, if you must know, it was my father." Yang didn't question further. To someone who was raised by her uncle and overprotective father, she had no idea what it was like to be raised by a bunch of people hired by a father with no time to care.

She honestly had no idea what Weiss' home life had been like, and Yang wasn't sure she wanted to know.

* * *

Saturday, November 14th

Team RWBY walked through the streets of Vale, everywhere you looked, people bustled about, running this way and that, setting up decorations, banners and lights of all sorts. "Oh, isn't this wonderful?" There were moments when Weiss' fading Atlesian accent would resurface, and this was one of them. While her speech patterns had slightly changed, her vocabulary stayed fairly the same.

It was interesting to observe. But as Weiss ran forward a little, ahead of RBY, she was looking all around at the insanity that was the preparations for the Vital festival. Eight years ago, Yang remembered this same thing.

Running around looking at all the people preparing, dragging her then seven year old sister behind her, Qrow and Taiyang keeping a watchful eye on them as they watched the preparations for something they wouldn't see in person again for eight years. Another thing she remembered from that day was coming come and Ruby bursting into tears, she wanted her mom the be there too, and neither Qrow nor Taiyang knew how to consol her.

Yang shook herself from her own thoughts as they came upon the docks. That wasn't right, they were there because Weiss wanted to get Ruby a present, Blake realizing she had forgotten as well ran out the door with her. Ruby had come in asking where they were going, Yang had said shopping, and Ruby had yelled, "I want to go!" And exploded in rose petals. Yang had ran after them in hopes of catching up. Weiss had glared at Yang who had muttered, "you try stopping her next time."

Back to the present, "uh, why are we here?" Yang asked, Ruby chiming in from behind her,

"Ew it smells like fish." Blake looked back,

"I like the smell." She told the younger girl, who was plugging her nose with her hand. Weiss turned around to the group behind her in annoyance

"Some students from the other kingdoms are arriving today, I want to welcome them." She crossed her arms over her chest, daring anyone to contradict her. And Blake did just that,

"She wants to scope out the competition."

"That too..." Weiss allowed, turning and continuing to walk towards a boat getting ready to dock. No one expected a kid to come running off the boat.

"Thanks for the ride!" He yelled running up the docks and towards the city. Three other boys walked off,

"Don't worry, he paid, he just likes hiding in places, I think..." A blue haired kid told the men staring off at the kid. As he passed by RWBY, he winked at Blake, not that anyone else noticed.

Weiss however was ecstatic, "We must observe him!" She ran after the kid, who had a tail. A monkey Faunus. Of course he was.

"Wait! Weiss! Where are you going!?" Yang yelled, as the three other boys ran after their teammate as well, "hey Sun, were ya goin!?" The group watched the monkey Faunus being chased by their friend and behind her, three unknown boys running after as well, "uh," Blake took in the scene before her, "should we follow them?" Ruby, with the words of wisdom for the day, "CHASE THEM!" Exploded in rose petals.

Blake and Yang exchanged looks of annoyed embarrassment before running after. The boy, named Sun, rounded a corner, and jumped up a building to watch the scene behind him. He almost didn't notice a red head wearing green crossing the path of the white clad girl. The two collided, and his three teammate's ran past the fallen girls. Stifling a laugh, Sun looked down from the building and after his team.

Ehh, he could catch up. Not that the white clad girl noticed him, he just wanted to see how this would play out. He never expected a stream of rose petals to fly in and dissipate, fluttering to the ground, leaving a red clad, fourteen year old? He thought students at beacon had to be at least sixteen. A yellow girl and that girl with a bow came up behind the 'Rose Petal Girl'. He wished he could hear what they were saying, because it looked hilarious. Silently, he jumped away, off to find his team.

"Argg! where did he go!?" Weiss yelled,

"uh Weiss...?" Yang muttered, pointing below the girl. Another girl was laying on her back, silently staring up at the girl who'd trampled her,

"Salutations." She said in a heavy Atlesian accent. Weiss let out a startled gasp and bolted to her feet,

"Uh, hello?" Yang muttered, raising a hand slightly in a greeting." Ruby just stared. Blake took in the situation slowlly,

"Uh, are you okay?" She asked, and the girl seemed to think for a moment,

"Yes." She answered shortly, and Yang took a step forward,

"Do you want to get up...?"

The girl, still laying on her back, thought about it for another moment,

"Yes." She decided with a smile, and jumped to her feet. "My name, is Penny." Her speech was crisp and short, her voice filled with a heavy altlesian accent. But Ruby seemed okay with it, after all, Weiss used to sound like that. her accent was dissipating, slowly. Other then that fact,

"Are you not using contractions?" The red girl asked, and the girl, Penny, seemed to think again before answering,

"No, I am not."

"Okay..." Yang muttered, and Ruby stepped forward,

"Well, hi, I'm Ruby!" The girl saluted,

"Salutations!" Blake gave her a weird look,

"I'm Blake." Weiss stared at the girl, obviously Atlesian,

"I'm Weiss..." Yang shrugged,

"Yang." Penny seemed to take all this in,

"Salutations!"

"You already said that, three times..." Weiss muttered, before saying aloud, "Well, nice meeting you, but we have things we need to do. Bye." With a quick wave, she walked off, Yang and Blake following, Ruby however, stated,

"Later friend." Before following.

"Well, she was weird..." Yang whispered as they left the girl to her own devises. Never did she e pact the strange girl to pop up in front of them,

"What did you call me?" She asked a seemingly startled Yang. Blake stared in complete confusion while Weiss kept looking back and forth between the spots where Penny should be, and where she was. Yang seemed frozen,

"I uh..."

"No, not you." Penny clarified, and with slightly stiff movements, walked forward to stand in front of Ruby, "you!" Ruby scratched the back of her head, "uh, what?" Penny clarified further,

"You, called me, your friend." She stepped forward, and Ruby stepped backwards, still not used to people she didn't know being so close to her, her eyes widened in panic, "am I really your friend?" The girl asked, and Ruby took another step back. She still wasnt very comfortable around people, and now she needed to make a new friend. Nothing good could come from this.

Behind the new girl, Yang held a time out sign and shook her head, Weiss made cutting motions with her hands, and Blake held her hands up in a shrugging motion. friend, but she was having her doubts. It didn't help that her friends were against the idea.

But thinking back, Qrow had told her to keep moving, maybe that encompassed making new friends as well, whether or not she wanted to, "um, sure?" She answered, wanting nothing more then to run away. It didn't help help when her friends fell to the ground in exasperation.

"Wonderful!" Penny yelled and began rambling on as Weiss inched over to the younger girl,

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" The heiress asked quietly. Ruby just shrugged, and Weiss addressed the strange girl,

"Have you seen a Faunus run through here?" She held up a horribly drawn picture for effect. Penny looked lost,

"Not, through. Up." She pointed up at the buildings as a tail rounded the corner, twelve stories up.

"Ahh, get him!" Weiss yelled, bowling over Penny, and running strait into Blake,

"What is your deal?" Blake fumed, "there were plenty of other kids you could have talked to back at the boat, what's different about him?"

Weiss seemed affronted by the question, "I just want to make sure he won't cheat in the tournament." She folded her arms across her chest, and Blake threw her arms out in anger,

"Why!? Because he's a Faunus?" Weiss avoided the other girl's gaze,

"Well he's willing to steal food and stow away, so I wouldn't put it passed him, he'll probably just find the White Fang anyway." Blake's eyes widened in anger,

"You know, princess, not every Faunus is in the White Fang." On and on the fight went. Yang mentally thanked God that the two had already gotten their respective presents for Ruby, not that the red clad girl had noticed. Yang had made sure of that.

"Maybe we should go..." Ruby muttered, as the fighting between Blake and Weiss got louder.

"Where?" Penny asked, popping up in between the two sisters, Yang cringed as Ruby slapped a hand to her forehead.

"I'll see you later Penny, we've gotta go..." Penny seemed more clueless then Nora,

"Good bye, friend." She waved as Ruby and Yang dragged their teammate's towards the docks to board a bullhead back to Beacon.

Upon arriving back in their dorm, the fighting continued, and Yang and Ruby stood in the doorway as the two paced back and forth,

"You're spoiled!"

"Am not! Why are you even defending him, he obviously broke the law!"

"No he didn't, the other kids said he paid, remember?"

"There you go again, defending him!"

"You're discriminatory!" Blake didn't quite know where she'd pulled her words from, but Weiss got really heated in that moment, stomping her feet and yelling,

"I'm a victim!" Blake didn't have an argument for her, and the girl continued, "you want to know why I don't like the white fang, why I don't trust Faunus?" Weiss looked out the window, "as long as I can remember, people in my life just disapeared. My uncles and aunts, my grandfather. My mother. I even had a brother at one point. And I hardly even remember them!"

Weiss had her back to her team as she unveiled her deepest secrets, "and who did it!? A bunch of Faunus in the White Fang! Deaths, robberies, attacks, everything you can think of." She put her hands on the bookshelves placed below the window, "it's war in Atlas, war between the Schnee's and the White Fang." She couldn't see the shocked looks on the faces of her team, "every day! Every single day, my father would come home... Furious!"

She slammed her hand on the bookshelf, "and that made growing up very difficult!" She turned around, tears threatening to break free from their jail behind her eyes. When was the last time she'd allowed herself to cry?

Was it when her mother turned up, on the front lawn? When eight year old Weiss'd rushed forward, thinking she was asleep; the blood, the blood beginning to cover her hands as she tried to wake her mother up. Maybe it was when her brother disapeared, leaving only a note. He'd gone off to Vacuo, changed his name, started a new life.

Who knew... But, at that moment, Weiss wasn't about to let a tear fall. Blake took a step forwards, her anger flaring as well, "Maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Yang sighed and sat down in a chair next to the open door.

It only took a second for Blake to realize what she'd said. The girl turned and ran out of the room with a speed coming close to Ruby's. Ruby looked worried and ran out of the room, calling Blake's name, Yang just stayed sitting, and looked at Weiss to see conflicting emotions. Weiss turned her back to Yang, but having raised her own sister, Yang knew that movement was to shield knowledge of her tears from anyone. And Yang was okay with that.

* * *

Ruby had caught up to Blake in front of a statue, but the older girl had no idea. She stood in front of the monument of great hunters and huntresses, and took off her bow. A few tears being wiped away with her free hand.

"She looks better without the bow, doesn't she?" Ruby spun around, stifling a screech of terror at the newcomer. He was much to close for her liking. She stumbled backwards before he caught her flailing wrist to help her regain balance. He didn't expect her to completely freeze,

"whoa, whoa, it's okay." He whispered in panic as the girl began hyperventilating, he went into medic mode, not realizing his presence was the reason for her panic,

"okay, okay, panic attack, lets breath in, breath in, hey, kid, breath!"

He forgot all about being quiet, and his yelling called the attention of Blake. Before Blake could get all the way to Ruby though, a high pitched screech came from Beacon's youngest student, and she lost her footing and fell to the ground. Blake ran over,

"Ruby!?" She asked, kneeling down as the boy, Sun, yelled in panic,

"what did I do!?" Blake sighed,

"It wasn't you..." She turned her attention back to Ruby,

"Ruby, stop, it's me, Blake, can you hear me?" A nodd was given from the hyperventilating reaper, and Blake sighed in relief,

"Okay, your having a panic attack, right? I need you to breath, in then out,"

Blake watched for a second before elaborating, "no, breath slowly!" Ruby complied, and the older girl turned her attention back to the monkey Faunus.

"I was just telling her you looked good without a bow?" He tried, she glared at him,

"you don't deal with a panic attack in panic, it'll never work." The girl with newfound cat ears told him, and he held his hands up in surrender,

"Yea, yea... She's okay right?" Blake looked back down at Ruby, who's breathing had evened back out, though she was still staring at the ground,

"She's okay, you just scared her, rough few weeks, ya know...?" Blake played it off, and the boy shrugged, "fine by me. You coming?"

Blake gave him a funny look before turning back to her team leader, "Ruby," Blake turned her attention to her team leader, "I'll be back by tomorrow, okay?" Ruby looked up at her and nodded.

Blake helped her to her feet and made sure she was okay. She then turned, and followed Sun towards the entrance of the school, and Ruby, after a few minutes, turned to walk back to her dorm, her birthday being the next day was pretty far from her mind at that point.

* * *

Sunday, Nobember 15th

Ruby's birthday

Ruby woke up to the smell of pancakes wafting up from the common area one floor below. No one was in the dorm, and Ruby doubted that Blake was even back yet. The door was open, so Ruby got dressed in the bathroom and trudged downstairs. Yang was sitting with Pyrrah and Jaune at a table, Ren was making pancakes, and Weiss was trying, in vain, to keep Nora away from those pancakes.

"What?" Ruby asked, this was an odd picture, mostly only happening on special occasions, her question was answered when Yang got up and hugged her to the point of strangulation,

"Happy birthday Rubes!" She yelled before releasing her sister from her death grip. Ruby plopped in a seat in between Yang and Pyrrah,

"Thank you?" She said, unsure. She'd completely forgotten that her birthday was coming up. Who forgot their own birthdays?

Ruby did, appearently. Ren finished a batch of pancakes and handed them to Weiss who put them on the table. Suddenly Nora was sitting in between Yang and Jaune, in one of the empty seats, and staring at the pancakes. She reached for the surup, but Pyrrah grabbed it before she could. Jaune got up and grabbed a few plates, passing them out as Ren Weiss and Nora joined them.

Breakfast passed quite normally for the group, JNPR gave Ruby their presents for her after breakfast. The two childhood friends gave Ruby a box of cookies, with extra chocolate chips, from a local bakery, Pyrrah gave the girl a gold charm bracelet with a few rose pendants as well as one cross pendent, Jaune gave her a silencer for crescent rose, he'd gone to Yang to get measurements to have one specially made so it, unlike all the others, would fit.

Breakfast finished, and JNPR left to go train in one of the sparring classrooms, which were open to students on the weekends. Ruby Weiss and Yang decided to walk around Vale, Weiss' gift to Ruby was, whatever the girl decided she really wanted. Weiss came from a rich family after all. Ruby had chosen a better scope for her weapon, and was fitting it, as well as her new silencer, onto Crescent Rose as the group walked down the street, "I wonder where Blake is..." Yang spoke idly, "maybe we should look for her." Ruby chimed in, having put together her weapon and folded it back up and attached it to her belt. Weiss groaned, but complied.

After a few hours the group was still searching, and Weiss was growing more and more annoyed. "Blake!?" Ruby and Yang were yelling their teammate's name, Weiss just stalked along behind them. Finally Ruby had had enough. With conviction she hadn't showed much of for a long time, she spun around in her partner, "Weiss, you're not even looking." But Weiss had her own argument, "you know who could help? The police." Ruby groaned and turned around to continue looking, "bad idea."

"Well you know what I-" her retort was cutt off,

"I think, Weiss' hair looks wonderful, today." Ruby almost jumped out of her skin, and was effectively using her sister as a shield. However, upon realizing who it was, she let go of Yang's shoulders,

"Penny! How did you get here!?" She yelled, Penny shrugged,

"I walked." Weiss facepalmed while Ruby and Yang just stared at her,

"What are you, doing?" Penny asked, looking from person to person.

"Looking for Blake." Ruby answered, trying to snap herself back into normal mode by inching out from behind Yang.

"Oh, I can help!" Penny jumped and clapped her hands in exitement, and when Ruby turned to asked Weiss and Blake about their opinion, the two were gone.

Ruby groaned inwardly, they should know she wasn't completely comfortable around Penny. It didn't matter though, she didn't want to be alone either, so Penny it was. They were walking down the street, Ruby trying to explain the complicated situation to Penny, when an explosion sounded from the ship yard. Both girls turned around, and Ruby muttered, "oh no..." Before bolting off towards the plume of rising smoke.

The ship yard was filled with Schnee dust, and White Fang soldiers. Within the mix, was Sun and Blake, facing off against Roman Torchwic. Ruby jumped onto a building to get a better view. Roman had the upper hand, Blake wasn't wearing her bow, and Sun was borderline unconscious.

"Hey!" She yelled out, in an effort to draw attention away from her teammate and the other Faunus. Torchwic looked up at her and smiled,

"Oh, hello Red, it's a little late for you to be out, isn't it?"

One clean shot was all it took. Just as Penny got to the top of the building, Ruby slammed backwards and into the concrete roofing of the ship yard building. "Ruby?" Penny asked, but the silver eyed girl was unconscious. Blood was pooling around an area close to her temple, but her aura was already starting to heal the wound, the girl would be okay. Her assailant however... Penny looked down at Roman Torchwic.

"Do not worry Ruby. I am combat ready!" Penny jumped down and easily dispatched the rest of the White Fang, leaving Sun and Blake to stare in complete awe. A bullhead came to Torchwic's aid, followed by another, and Penny easily dispatched the first, but a moment of hesitation allowed the second to take her out.

Torchwic made his getaway just as the police began to arrive. "Ruby!" Blake yelled, waisting no time in getting onto the roof to help her team leader.

Ruby's eyes flitted open, sadness badly hidden in their depths, "I got hurt again." She assessed. Blake sighed and smiled,

"It doesn't matter, because your okay." She helped Ruby to her feet and they rejoined Sun on the ground, Penny was also beginning to wake up.

"Hey, aren't you that kid who's been stealing food?" An officer asked Sun, the boy laughed nervously,

"uh, no?"

"Oh, okay." The officer moved off, and Blake stifled a laugh at the stupidity of the police. Yang and Weiss came running up,

"Are you guys okay?" Yang asked, worry evident on her face. Weiss stomped forward to talk to Blake, "Weiss, I-"

"look." Weiss cutt her off, the heiress wanted the Faunus to hear her words.

"You may have been White Fang, but you left. Right?" Blake nodded, and Weiss smiled,

"that's good enough for me." The white clad girl plopped down onto a storage crate, Blake sitting down next to her. Somewhere along the line, Penny simply walked away.

* * *

Yang and Ruby sat in the common area, Weiss and Blake were asleep, and it was late, around eleven thirty at night. "It's a little late," Yang spoke up, over the sounds of the television they were watching, handing Ruby a wrapped box that she must have hidden in the cushions of the couch they were sitting on.

Ruby took the box, wrapped with rose petal decorated wrapping paper, and a black ribbon with red frills. It was small, not much bigger than the palm of her hand, Ruby gave Yang a suspicious look before opening it.

What it contained was a smaller, black box. A jewelry box, the ones expensive jewelry came in when you bought it at the store. Ruby stared at it a moment before opening the box, "Yang, you didn't have too..."

Ruby stared in awe at The beautiful piece of jewelry sitting in the little black box. A Rose shaped pendent, red as blood, on a silver chain, a silver cross inlaid inside the blood red petals of the pendent. "Happy birthday Rubes." Yang simply answered.

She would never tell her sister that it was Qrow who gave her money to buy it, saying that he'd asked the shopkeeper to tell anyone who wanted the outrageously priced pendent (it wasn't really, the price was just to detour buyers away), that it was on hold. That was, unless they told the man about Qrow, and how to spell his name. Clever trick, Yang mused, Ruby had told her about the beautiful necklace the night she saw it, the night of the robbery, so long ago. She had said it was way to expensive, big relief.

Ruby put on the necklace, and looked down at the pendent around her neck, "Thank you so much, Yang!" Yang smiled, and hugged her sister, "you're welcome, Rubes."

* * *

Friday, November 20th

History class was drawing to a close, the last class, of the last day of the semester. Ruby had survived her first semester at Beacon, and in her mind, it really was a matter of survival. Blake and Pyrrah sat across the room, Ren and Jaune were in the back corner, and Nora sat snoring next to her while Yang was behind her. Team CRDL was spread around the room in various places, but since their failure in forever fall, they hadn't done much in the line of bullying.

Her notes on Ooblek's lecture consisted of important information shown in pictograms that only she could understand. You couldn't tell the difference between the pictograms and the doodles that covered the rest of the page. Only Ruby, and Yang, to an extent, could. Once, Ooblek's had asked her if she was paying attention, she had said yes, but he looked at her notes and thought the opposite. He held up the whole class as Ruby explained each and every pictograms to him.

Once he understood, Ooblek's had found Ruby's way of note taking fascinating. And as he closed out his last class of the semester, Ruby finished her last pictogram. Ooblek's zoomed out of the room, and the class began to gather up their books. "Ruby!" Yang yelled, waving her hands, students filing out of the classroom looked in their direction as Ruby groaned and walked over to her older sister. Better go to her now before she started telling a conversation across the room.

'Ya all packed up?" Yang asked her little sister, who groaned and showed some of her juvenile annoyance by folding her arms across her chest,

"Of course I am." Yang smiled in amusement before,

"Where are you two going?" A new voice jumped into the conversation, and the siblings looked around to find Jaune. Yang smiled and put a hand on her hip,

"Back home for a week, Dad wants to wish Rubes a late birthday." Jaune nodded,

"Sounds fun!" Ruby nodded, and Yang continued,

"Yea, but it won't be easy hiding what happened from dad."

Both she and Jaune looked down at Ruby, who suddenly felt much smaller, "uh, we just won't talk about it." The young leader said, pointing upwards in the air as though she had an epiphany. Yang facepalmed, and Jaune muttered,

"Good luck with that..." Before backing away. The two girls began the trip to their dorm to get ready to leave for Patch.

* * *

Entering the dorm was a big mistake, Weiss was balancing books on top of her rapier, and Blake was staring intently at the enormous, gravity defying statue being created by the heiress. The door opened, and the statue fell.

"Hey!" Weiss' indignant yell sounded, as her rapier clattered to the floor, along with what was close to twenty books. Blake looked a little disappointed. Yang and Ruby just stared in confusion,

"uh... What are you guys doing?" Yang asked, taking in the scene.

"You ruined it!" Weiss yelled, purposely not answering the question. Ruby just stared. It was so unlike Weiss to just do something silly, it weirded the reaper out.

Blake had half a mind to change the subject, "What are you guys doing over break?" She looked over at the siblings in question. Yang smiled,

"Goin home to Patch, you?" Blake shrugged,

"I'm staying here." She left no room for question, and Weiss smiled,

"I'm staying too, it should be peaceful with most of the school gone." Weiss and Blake seemed content with their plans, so Yang and Ruby didn't question them further, they just grabbed their lightly packed bags, after all, they were going home, and left to go catch a Bullhead to Vale. From there they would take a boat to Patch, and arrive around dinner time. Four hours from then.

It was a fairly boring trip. But once they arrived in port on Patch, Ruby let out a sigh of relief, "home!" She yelled, and rose petals, familiar to everyone on the entire island of Patch, burst up the path leading to the Xiao Long-Rose household. Yang smiled, and began the walk home. Darkness was beginning to set in. The soon to be winter days had shortened significantly, and the shadows of trees crawled across the path as Yang walked to her home.

Patch was a scientific mystery, almost no Grimm ever dared to cross over the waters separating the island from the rest of the world. Usually there was no Nevermore to scare the children, no random Ursa ever caught a hunter or huntress off guard, no pack of hundreds of Beowolves stalked the forests. Patch was a place, the only place, in the world where one could live safely without the fear of Grimm.

The reason why? No one knew, the reason why few people lived on the island when it was a relatively safe place, was simple, scrolls only worked when you were within twenty feet of the academy. It was the only place on earth where the smaller relay towers hardly ever worked. There didn't need to be Grimm to destroy it when it hardly ever worked anyway.

Even in the places where the relay tower did work, it was sporadic at best. Patch was the world's only permanent dead zones. No relay tower worked for long periods of time either, it had to be replaced every other month. No one wanted to live in a place still stuck in the dark age. But it was peaceful, Yang loved it. She knew Ruby did too. Even when they'd received scrolls from signal, the only thing they'd been good for was the aura meter application. The only application that worked without signal from a relay tower.

The name of the school was ironic, Signal academy was the only place on Patch where one could get a signal with their scroll. The fact that the Xiao Long-Rose family had been attacked by Grimm, even on Patch was simple. Qrow had explained it to Yang once. Silver eyes. The Grimm knew about the ferocity of a silver eyed warrior, they would take any available chance to eliminate one before it became a threat. Unfortunetly for them, Ruby, without realizing it, had been a threat since she was four.

Yang smiled at the thought as she came upon the small home she'd grown up in, door open, and screen protecting against bugs. She could hear Zwei barking before the screen opened, and the small corgi ran out to meet her. She scooped him up in her arms, "hey Zwei, miss me?" She then opened the screen and entered the family room of her childhood home. Ruby was sitting in the kitchen, she could tell because of the trail of rose petals leading to it.

"Dad?" She called, setting the dog on the ground. An answer came from the kitchen,

"In here, Hun!" No wonder Ruby was in the kitchen. Yang made her way in as well, Zwei following at her heels. Upon her entrance, she was crushed in a hug by her father, a humongous smile on his face,

"Welcome home firecracker!" She tried to return his hug, but her arms were trapped at her sides.

"Hi, dad." She managed to say, amid the crushing of her ribs. Ruby laughed from where she was sitting at the island counter, eating nothing other then home grown strawberries.

Her father released her from the crushing hug, and smiled, "sit down, eat some strawberries, dinner'll be ready in a few minutes." Yang had smelled it halfway down the path, the smell of her father's cooking. Ruby was hopeless when it came to cooking, Yang had learned everything she knew about it from her dad, and she excelled at it.

Yang took a seat next to Ruby, and Zwei lay down at their feet. It was quiet, save for the sounds of the pots and their dad, working away at the food, quiet and serene. It was never like that in the dorm rooms. There was always something happening, always some exitement going on.

Yang liked the exitement, but she loved the serenity of her home. She had loved being close enough to home to not have to stay in a dorm at Signal, but she also loved sharing a dorm with so many people her age, the diversity made it an exiting ride.

Soon food was ready. Taiyang placed plates full of casserole in front of the girls, before sitting down next to Yang with his own plate. Dinner was peaceful. Much more peaceful then any dinner the two girls had had since the night before the school year started.

"How's Beacon?" Tai asked. Ruby's fork froze momentarily before continuing on with her food, letting Yang take over the conversation. Yang smiled, Ruby was pretty good at lying, "it's great, Rubes' made a bunch of new friends," she looked over at Ruby, who matched her enthusiasm, one of the many things Ruby was good at faking,

"Yea, Team JNPR, SSUN, CFVY Penny..." She shoved a forkful of food into her mouth so she didn't need to continue. Tai nodded,

"Sounds fun, and the classes? They stopped using the attendance for the year yet?"

Yang shook her head, her mouth full, and Tai smiled, "they'll probably stop next semester." He leaned forward to look at Ruby,

"How's team leader going for you?" He asked his youngest daughter, and Ruby smiled,

"It's weird, everyone's older then me, but I'm in charge, kind of." Tai had to fight a bout of laughter from making itself known,

"Yea, being a leader only has relevance during team fights or missions, huh?" Ruby nodded, having put more food into her mouth.

Comfortable silence was attained as the group finished their dinner and began to clean the dishes, Yang washing, Tai drying, Ruby putting them away, "so, where's uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked, and Tai thought a moment,

"Who knows." He consented, and handed the youngest another dish.

* * *

Weiss ignored yet another call from her father, before picking back up her book. Blake was off who knows where, actually, she was probably in the library, but who cared? Nora and Ren were in their dorm, Pyrrah was of in Mistral, visiting her mother, and Jaune was off visiting his family, his parents, and his seven sisters. Soon to be eight siblings he claimed, and he was betting on it being another girl, much to his own chargin.

Weiss snorted at the idea of Jaune playing dolls with his younger siblings, but it wasn't far fetched, she could vaugly remember her older brother doing just that with her, and Winter sometimes doing the same. She smiled at the memory, but it was quickly wiped off her face by the memory of what had happened to rip the three siblings apart.

She could never tell anyone about the letters she recived from her brother, formerly named Frost, but now, just went by Jack. He sent her emails, hand written letters, and every year, on her birthday, sent her a gift, as well as called her himself.

She had no idea if he did the same with Winter, she was likely to tell father if he did. Winter was like that, the perfect angel in the eyes of Father, her only act of rebellion had been joining the military.

Frost was the rebel, and his time with his youngest sister caused that trait to rub off on her. As long as she could remember, he would lead the sneak attacks on the staff in their home, pranks galore, striking fear into the maids and butlers that had to clean their rooms, or anywhere for that matter.

Her family was dysfunctional at best. She hardly remembered her mother. Weiss did remember the day that she herself found her dead, and she fondly remembered her brother. She had idolized her sister, but the older girl distanced her self from her little sister, so Weiss had turned to Frost, her only friend. Perhaps that was why he only kept contact with her, he knew what leaving her alone would do to the girl.

So he made sure to send mail whenever he could. He was a hunter, only his family was unaware of his origional identity, but for one who knew, or even figured it out, the resemblance to the noble family was uncanny.

He looked just like his mother, but with the facial structure of his father. Remembering her family was strange to Weiss, it was so twisted and messed up, she remembered hiding from her father with Frost whenever he came home angry, Winter hid in the trees outside the mansion, they hid in the basement, tucked away from sight with their mothers old things.

The things that had been left for Frost, Winter, and Weiss. Frost had taken the things she'd meant for him when he left, Winter didn't want anything from her mother, and Weiss, Weiss was waiting to settle down before she sent for the things, maybe she would have to get them herself, but it didn't matter, her mother meant for her to have the things, so by any means necessary, she would get them.

* * *

Blake sat in the library, book open on the table in front of her. But she wasn't really reading it, she was also caught up in memories of her past. She had no memory of her parents, she did however, remember that she had a brother, much older then her.

What happened to him, and her parents was a mystery. She had grown up in Mountain Glen. Until she was six. All hell broke loose then, Grimm attacked. People were rushed through the subways, and during that hectic day before the tunnels were sealed, she'd been separated from her family.

Thats when she found Adam. Well Adam had found her. Starving to death in what was left of the tunnel city. He'd taken her in, gotten her healthy again. Six year old Blake came to think of Ten year old Adam as her savior, and followed him everywhere, even to the White Fang.

The peaceful organization lead peaceful protests in front of places known for Faunus racism, but slowly, Adam started to change. Before Blake even realized what was happening, it had become a cult. A violent and productive cult. An effective and terrifying cult.

Soon Adam was the leader. He wasn't what she remembered, he was much worse, building her up, tearing her down and remolding her. Changing her into a twisted form of who she used to be, into what he wanted her to be.

Soon, the oppression became to much, and she ran, ran like she always had. Ran because she was scared. Running got her separated from her family, running had led her strait to Adam, and now, running was taking her away from him as well. How long could she survive on just running?

* * *

Pyrrah's mother had become widowed when her daughter was around twelve. Her husband had trained Pyrrah himself, and her mother was proud as can be. When her husband had died though, she was never the same. The strong woman Pyrrah had been raised by became much weaker. It was truly sad to watch.

Pyrrah had isolated herself. Even from children her own age. Focused on taking care of her mother, and training herself to meet the goal she'd worked on with her father. Soon she'd realized that her own actions had lead her to be so isolated that she couldn't go back.

So strong she was placed on a pedalstool, isolated from the very people she wanted to become friends with. But as she made dinner for her mother, who she knew didn't have much longer, she felt at peace. She had friends now, and had told her mom all about them.

The woman had smiled, truly ecstatic that her daughter was finally socializing. She told her mom about Jaune, everything she thought about him, how he'd gotten to the school, and everything, she'd laughed and told her that Jaune was her foil. She'd told her about Ren and Nora, the childhood friends who became her closest allies. Ms. Nikos had smiled happily and listened to every word her daughter had to say. Pyrrah was finally, truly happy, and her mother felt more at peace with that knowledge.

* * *

Nora was jumping on her bed, Ren was meditating on the floor a few feet away. They didn't go home, they didn't have a home to go to. Their past was a no go zone for anyone they weren't close to, but honestly, where were they going to go if they left the school for break?

They had no home, the chances that Nora's mother was still alive were point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, Google plux zeros, one percent. One day, maybe they'd go back and see what was left of the village they'd grown up in, maybe find out who had murdered so many people, but not now. One day did not mean today. It meant tomorrow.

* * *

Jaune was happy. Six girls were running around him, playing some kind of animal game, each of them were a different animal, all of them were playing with him. His mother was watching from the porch, and his father was grilling food.

His mother would be having her ninth child soon, and everyone was exited. To say that no one was worried though, would be a lie. Mrs. Ark was, in all honesty, too old to be having more children.

But with any luck, everything would be okay. Jaune sure hoped so. So he played with his little sisters, enjoying their presence, and getting ready for a new one. His sisters' ages ranged from Jenny at fifteen, Ruby reminded him of her, to 12, the twins, Nicole and Nicky, to ten year old Ginger, to six year old Mable, and four year old Jackie. Name ideas for his mom's next child were Michelle, Alexis, Alexander, or James.

But it wasn't likely that Alexander or James would be used. Who really cared though? Jaune was snapped out of his reverie when four year old Jackie jumped onto his back yelling, "piggy back ride!" Over and over again. It was always lively in the Ark household. And that was how Jaune liked it.

* * *

Saturday, Novemver 21st

Vacation day 1/23

Ren and Nora sat on the beds in their dorm room, plans had been made, it was almost an eleven day journey, but they were going home. They had no idea what would happen, what would be in the place they remembered both fondly, and horribly.

Tomorrow they would head out, they would leave Vale by the end of morning on the first day, find a village they'd run to, in their hast to get away from their home, on the second, and by the end of the trip, they'd have walked for close to eleven days. Then it was the matter of going back. Walking, it was eleven days, but they were talking Ren and Nora here, Nora would probably try to ride some form of Grimm...

"Do you really think we should go?" Ren asked Nora gently, she was having a bad day, but luckily their teammates had already left for their families, but Ren and Nora were all the two of them had, each other. Nora nodded, "I have to." She whispered, staring down at the covers on her bed. Ren sighed and sat down next to her, he wrapped an arm around his childhood friend, and she rested her head on his shoulder, "I don't want to..." She opened up to him, and he looked down at her, she continued, "but I have to."

Ren nodded, he understood more then Nora would ever know. In a way, he had to go as well, so he could move on, live his life without not knowing. He patted Nora's shoulder, and the two sat there, both apprehensive about the road ahead of them.

* * *

Monday, November 23rd

Vacation day 3/23

They'd reached it, the village that became their safe haven after their flight from home, Helen's Pocket. Easily, they found the old couple that had taken them in, and helped them finish their education. The two people that had helped them get to Beeacon. "Ren, Nora! What a surprise!" The woman they knew as Daisy welcomed them at the door to her home. "Alex will be so surprised!" She ushered them into the house.

Once inside, they were greeted with the warm glow of the fireplace, and the equally warm smile of Alex, who stood up and greeted the two. "Dinner's cooking, how long are the two of you staying?" He asked them, and the two kids looked at each other, Ren was the one who spoke,

"We just stopped by for a visit, we need to leave soon." He stated quietly, letting his regret about the decision seep into his voice, but they needed to keep going, school was a thing that they eventually needed to get back to. The man didn't seem but off though.

"Where are you two off to then?" He asked, patting Ren on the back, Nora finally spoke up,

"Home..." Was all She said, and an uneasy silence settled on the the three, until Daisy yelled from in the kitchen,

"None of you are going anywhere until you've eaten some good, warm food!"

"Yes ma'am!" Both kids yelled simultaneously. And followed Alex into the familiar surroundings of the kitchen.

"So you two are goin home are ya?" Daisy asked, stirring some soup in a pot, "yea." Ren answered, his nervousness seeping into his voice and filling that one word. The woman didn't answer right away, but when she did, the two, who had lived with her since they were seven, listened,

"I've watched you two grow for almost ten years now. And you had better believe I will not march out into what's left of Carnation, and drag the two of you from the depths of death." She poured a kind of spice into the food, "I may have never met your parents, but I know it's what they would want me to do."

She turned around, wooden spoon in hand, "you two had better come back." She set bowls of hot, home-made soup in front of the two teens, before setting one in front of Alex, and sitting down herself,

"How's Beacon?" Alex asked, through a mouthful of soup, he was almost immidietly answered,

"It's so great, the buildings in Vale are huge, and I've never seen so many kids our age before!" Nora's words came out loud, and fast, but everyone at the table was used to it, Alex nodded, "and you, Ren?" Ren stopped eating, how was Beacon?

Beacon opened up so many paths for him, it gave him a chance to do what, early on in his life, he had no chance of doing. It gave him a chance to have friends other then just Nora, it gave him more people that he could trust in his life.

It gave him a stream of education, rows and rows of knowledge stored in the library that he could look through. It gave him people who cared, a place to sleep, a place to call home. It gave him a reliable source of food, and training, a chance to better himself. A better question would be what it didn't give him. He looked at the man who had inadvertently raised him and stated, "it's everything." He stated simply.

Alex looked at Ren for a second, before laughing, loud and joyous, "Good on you!" He seemed satisfied, and the four people ate in silence. Two hours of happiness ended when Ren told the elderly couple that they needed to leave. Daisy had envoloped the two in a crushing hug, before telling them again, "if you don't come back, I will kill you both, myself." And the two continued their journey, home.

* * *

Thursday, December 8th

Vacation day 9/23

They were making good time, thanks to that poor beowolf, actually, not poor, it was a creature of darkness after all. The map they were using was very old, after all, the village they were going to was old. The two childhood friends had no idea what they would find upon returning to their home, but it wouldn't be good.

Nora was much more subdued then she usually was, Ren was much more open then he usually was. This is how the two are when they are only with each other. Their parents had called them each other's foil. Ren calmed Nora down, Nora helped Ren open up. But as they walked down an unkept trail that hadn't been used for years, not since they'd first left the village, both were somber.

Why they were going back now, was simple; it was time. Both he and Nora were ready to return and find out what had happened to the people who lived in the village. After all, when they had left, twenty people lived there, before the murders started, fifty people lived there. It was named after the flowers that bloomed along the dirt roads during spring, carnations.

It was a beautiful place to grow up, but it had a dark secret. After all, it was now, by official means, a ghost town. Ren looked up from the map and spoke the first words since they'd left Vale, "you remember the way right?" He looked to Nora, who simply nodded before Ren folded the map and put it away.

They remembered the way all right. They'd run through this path in a blind panic, all those years ago. The flowers had been blooming as the two tore through the path, praying they'd be the only ones who successfully left the village without their bodies turning up in the plaza. Footsteps could be heard behind seven year olds Nora and Ren as they ran through the flowering meadows in terror. Looking back, the two now knew they'd run two miles before that man had caught up.

His face had been hidden by a mask, and he'd grabbed Nora's arm. She had shrieked, and struggled in his vice like grip, but before the man could do anything, Ren who was slightly farther ahead of the two, had turned around, and discovered his semblance. He raised his hands and the man had let go of Nora and turned to stare at him. Nora had bolted away from him and towards Ren, the boy twisted his hand a little and the man fell to the ground, asleep. Ren then turned around, and the two had run away, and never looked back.

The odds that Nora's mother was still alive were lower then zero, but they needed to go back, just to know what had happened. But it was erie, walking along the path that they remembered to be filled with flowers. It seemed, almost, dead. A cold wind blew, and the two stayed close together as they walked through the silent, dead meadow. The skeleton trees surrounding the meadow seemed just as dead, they were preparing for winter.

It was quiet, no animals were in the vicinity, no Grimm either. Only the sound of the duo's footsteps could be heard on the overgrown trail as the two neared the place that haunted their dreams, the good, and the bad. About halfway through the dead meadow, Nora stopped and spoke, breaking the silence, "here's where it happened." Ren stopped as well and looked around. There was nothing special about the spot they stood in, the same dead space as the rest of the meadow, but to the two, this was the spot where they had almost died.

This was the spot where Ren had found his semblance, all those years ago. Well at least his basic semblance. Everyone had a complicated semblance, there was the simple manifestation, I.e. Putting someone to sleep, becoming stronger when hit, turning electricity into strength, polarity, healing, glyphs, speed...

The list when on, but there was always something else to discover with a semblance, manipulating emotions, bringing someone back from death, using electricity for strength, overcoming gravity, small scale telekinetic control, using defeated enemies for your own gain... Again, the list whent on.

Here was where Ren, for the first time, used his semblance, and saved the lives of both himself, and Nora. They were almost home. Aprehensiveness snuck its way into Ren's heart, "yea..." He looked over to where the sun was beginning to set, "we need to keep moving." Nora nodded, and the two continued, at a much quicker pace. They arrived at their home village just before the sun ducked below the horizon. They stood in the plaza, not knowing what to do.

"I suppose," Ren started, "we should go see your home." Nora nodded, and the two walked towards the empty house that they remembered from their childhood. But, before they could get there, a voice stopped them,

"Nora? Ren?" The two spun around upon hearing the feminine voice. An old woman, who in their memories, wasn't as old, stood in front of them, Machiella Genea. "I never thought I'd see the two of you again. You look so much older now!" She seemed elated to see them, but both kids were on the offensive. Wary of seeing someone in a place where everyone should be dead.

"How are you even..." Nora started the question but was cut off by the woman,

"Oh, hunny, people still live here, we can't go anywhere, have you come to see your parents' graves?" She asked the two the next question largely out of left field, but Nora froze, and her whole demeanor changed, Ren was left to pick up the slack,

"Yes'm." He answered simply. Something was off about this woman, she seemed too, happy...? Joyous...? Upbeat...? It unnerved him, especially her lack of empathy,

"Good, good! Come on then, I'll show you the way!" She began to lead the two up a trail that they knew lead to a small cemetery as the sun dipped below the horizon.

They walked down the silent path to the world of the dead, Nora sniffling quietly, but Ren was watching the woman intently, "Almost there you two!" Way to upbeat, it was almost terrifying, even Nora had caught on. Here red-rimmed eyes kept meeting Ren's, both with a suspicious look in them. They had made it to the cemetery, and near the back, four tombstones stood, lonely and forlorn, near the trees threatening to over through the small plot of clear land.

Both kids read the tombstones in silence, we'll sort of. Marciella was rambling on about this and that in the background. Nora, after a few minutes, turned and looked at her, "your not Marciella." She stated. The woman stopped talking and looked at the girl in confusion,

"Nora..." Ren whispered, Nora had lost...it... Clashes of memories passed through Ren's mind as Nora, through a connection in their aura caused by it being unlocked at the same time, by the same person, pointed his attention towards a tombstone close to their parents'. The name clearly written on it was; Marciella Genea. Ren froze, and turned to look at the woman who stood in front of them, smiling.

"you know," she stated, her voice growing deeper at the end of the word 'know', "semblances can be very handy." Her voice continued to grow deeper and her hair changed from a light brown to a jet black, receding from its long shoulder length, to a short, yet slightly overgrown length,

"But it's different for everyone." The now male voice spoke, as the very facial structure of the human began to change, " you might be able to disguise yourself, be someone else." The clothing he was wearing swapped itself for a blood red jacket and black pants, "you can run around an unsuspecting village," a weapon materialized, attached to the back of his belt,

"Trick everyone, and anyone into thinking your someone else, and waiting," he drew his weapon, unfolding it into an encredibly long, and sharp, sword, "for the right time." He attacked, going first for Ren.

The teen dogged easily, despite the overall terror of having been walking around with a person he now recognized as a mass murderer. "Ren!" Nora shouted, drawing her hammer and jumping towards the man, who continued to try to land a hit on Ren,

"All those years ago!" Ren dogged another attack, "I almost had the two of you!" He dogged again, "then you and your semblance, counteracted me perfectly!" Ren just barely dogged, "you got away once, but never again!" He almost hit his target, but Nora came to the rescue with her mallet-hammer.

She slammed it into the man, and fired a round of dust into him. The murderer flew towards the tree covering and slammed into the trunk. He hit the ground, but Ren was already there, deploying his weapon and holding it at the man's throat,

"You killed my parents." He stated simply, "you killed everyone here, didn't you!?" He yelled as Nora came to meet him,

"What's your name?" She asked, in a deathly calm voice, the man just looked at her, confused, "what?" Nora stared at him,

"I want to know the name of the man," she paused, trying to formulate her raging thoughts, "the man who ruined our lives!" She yelled, anger, pain, loss, and sadness dripping from her voice, "you killed his parents," she motioned towards Ren, "and my dad, the one who taught us to use aura!"

She motioned towards the gravestones, "did you kill my mother too!?" The man closed his eyes, but didn't answer her last question yet, "my name, is Thomas James." He paused and opened his eyes, locking onto Nora's before speaking, "and I killed all of your parents."

Semblances were a funny thing, usually they acted in a normal way, unless yours was fueled by electricity, your own brain creates electricity you know, synapses and such. Your whole body works with electricity, and your mind can strengthen your semblance with emotions.

Synapses fire repeatedly, further strengthening your power, power that seemed to radiate off of Nora. Before Ren could stop her, before either of the two knew what she was doing, it was done. The murderer lay, fifty feet away from the tree, bleeding out. And Nora had also collapsed, into a fit of sobs.

Ren bent down next to her, Magnahild lay at her side, the weapon she'd used to kill the one who'd murdered so many people. "It's okay," he whispered, rubbing her back in circular patterns to help calm her down, using his semblance was a bad idea in this situation, best to let Nora deal with her emotions.

"Let's go Nora." He whispered, looking to where the murderer's body had stilled, and his breathing had stopped. Nora stood up and complied with him, and the two left the cemetery. They didn't go into either of their childhood homes, and walked strait out of the uninhabited village. No one lived there, not anymore.

One day they'd come back, having eliminated the threat, but not now. Not any time soon. So they walked down the path leading to their true home, not only Alex and Daisy, but Beacon as well.

* * *

Monday, December 12th

Vacation Day 13/23

A new record! Not that anyone was counting. Nonstop walking had turned a nine day trip into a four day trip, and there wasn't even the use of an unsuspecting Grimm this time. The duo had already returned to Helen.

They stayed the night with Daisy and Alex, who, after Ren had told them, did everything they could do for Nora, who had only slightly bounced back.

It was like when the girl had first come to them, the shock, coupled with her depression, had left the girl in a cationic state. She was coming back much quicker then last time though. Ren made the decision to get her back to Beacon as quickly as possible, and promised the old couple that they would write to them more.

With that, the last leg of the trip was about to be completed.

* * *

Wednesday, December 14th

Vacation Day 15/23

They'd made it back to Beacon, back to their home, and the moment they'd gotten back to their dorm, Nora had flopped onto her bed, and fallen asleep. Ren wasn't as lucky. Team RWBY, RY had gotten back to Beacon the day before, were constantly checking on the two, just to see if they were okay.

They weren't, it was as simple as that, but eventually, they would be. After all, they had a week to recover, right?


	5. Mistral, Frost, Penny, and the Dance

A/N: This chapter consists of what used to be chapters 17-21

!IMPORTANT!

Fun fact, I cannot visualize things that I read, or write for that matter. You tell me to picture a red flower on a tall green-brown stem, I see nothing. Every once in a while, if I stop reading and concentrate on what I want to see, I can kind of picture it. It's like a television flicking on and off once. I always thought it was normal, but recently, I found out it wasn't, and it only took sixteen years right? My point is, as I describe Mistral in this chapter, you might get a good picture of it, but I have no idea what it looks like, AND IM THE ONE DESCRIBING IT! So if anything I write doesn't make sense, go ahead and tell me, but you have to have something I can substitute it with as well, or I won't change it, because it will be too hard to change it.

Thanks for reading, and on with the chapter!

* * *

RWBY

Saturday, November 21

Vacation Day 1/23

Pyrrah sat in the bullhead as it flew over the magnificent walls of Mistral. Her mother should be waiting for her on the ground. Mistral was a unique kingdom, they all were, the separation between classes was marked out well on land, but looking at a person, you wouldn't be able to tell which class they were from.

That's what happens when your kingdom is surrounded by swamps. Villages dotted the watery land, hidden within the soggy trees, the sun was setting over the clouds that were a near permanent fixture in the Kingdom's sky.

The Mistral Trade Route could be seen leading off towards other villages, and a port on the other side of the landmass. The route lead over water to Menagerie as well, but not many people lived there anymore. Mistral's closeness to Menagerie was the reason the kingdom had such a high population of Faunus.

There was a higher tolerance here as well. Most people in Mistral grew up for the first six or seven years of their lives without knowing racism was a thing that could happen, some kids even wanted to be a Faunus, it was a real rip-lash when you leave the kingdom to visit another.

Trade was a big part of Mistral's economy, Lien was only used with any sort of continuity in high end parts of the kingdom. Usually gold, silver, food, or other items were used in the bustling streets of the swampy land known as Mistral.

And as Pyrrah's airship landed on the docks, she could see lights beginning to flicker on throughout the city, and the outreaching villages, just over the wall. The swampy area allowed her home kingdom to be the only kingdom with a mote around the outer wall, as well as the inner wall. Although, the inner wall was safe drinking water, the outer wall was pure swamp.

The tall buildings in the center of the kingdom surrounded Haven academy, while Sanctum was surrounded by the smaller, less magnificent buildings. Every road you could think to travel on in this kingdom, barring the alleys and backroad a hidden away behind homes and large skyscrapers, were filled with traders, Mistral was home to a unique kind of person, the likes of which could only be found there, and in Vacuo, Gypsies. Pyrrah got up and grabbed her travel bag, leaving the airship as the stars twinkled above her.

"Pyrrah!" A voice yelled, and the teen looked around. The first person she saw was her mother, standing there, smiling and waving. Her smile was contagious and Pyrrah found herself doing the same as she ran over to the old woman.

"Hi mom!" She hugged her mother tightly, and Ms. Nikos did the same. The Nikos family was middle class, but they owned no car, the two would take a city bus to their home.

They made it easily, and upon entrance into the small house Pyrrah had grown up in, she dropped all her things on the floor in her bedroom, "what do you want for dinner?" Her mother had asked, but Pyrrah hadn't let her cook, she had taken over the kitchen and cooked for herself, and her mother.

"So, dear, how's Beacon?" The woman asked from her seat at the kitchen table. Pyrrah thought for a moment,

"It's amazing, I made a bunch of friends, and the teachers are so nice, some of the kids from other kingdoms are already arriving for the Vital Festival." Her mother nodded,

"And what are your friends like?"

"Well there's my team, Ren and Nora grew up together, Nora's very, outlandish, so's Ren for that matter, but he's so much more, quiet." She thought for a moment, adding in some spice to the meat she was cooking,

"Then there's our team leader Jaune, he forged his transcripts you know." Her mother didn't answer, just let Pyrrah continue, "he was horrible at everything when the school year started, but he's gotten a lot better, I've been helping him." Her mother smiled,

"Sounds like you've got yourself a pretty good team. Did you make any other friends?" Pyrrah began to cut up a few vegetables, she looked up at her mom, "yea, ream RWBY, Ruby just turned fifteen a few weeks ago, and she's team leader."

"I'm sure she's a bright little girl." Ms. Nikos answered, and Pyrrah continued,

"She's so good at sparring, she's probably better then me." Ms. Nikos shuffled some cards that she had taken out at one point during the conversation,

"Have you sparred her yet?"

"No... Then she has a sister named Yang, they're on the same team, but almost three years apart! And a girl named Blake who's a Faunus, she really likes to read, and then there's Weiss Schnee." Her mother stopped dealing out cards. For Solitaire, and looked up at her,

"Weiss Schnee on a team with Faunus?"

"Yea, you would think it wouldn't work, but they're really good friends!" Ms. Nikos hummed in agreement, and Pyrrah placed a plate of food in front of her,

"I'm really glad I went to Beacon instead of Haven." She conceded to her mom as she sat down with her own food, her mom answered,

"I told you it would be a good idea to start over, a clean plate, in a new place, I'm glad your happy, and those pictures you've been sending me are wonderful." The two were content with eating in a comfortable silence.

* * *

Monday November 30th

Vacation day 10/23

Jaune was making dinner with his youngest two sisters, when his father yelled, "Jaune, get the Keys and start the car! Everyone get in the car!" He looked down at Jackie and Maple in confusion and turned off the stove. A few seconds later, Nicole came running down the hallway screaming,

"The baby's coming!" And Nickie yelling, "Grab towels!" Jaune froze for a second, it was a month early. He grabbed the car keys and ran out to the garage, Jackie and Maple following behind.

"Get in the car guys." He told them as he started it. Jenny and Ginger came running out as well, with Nickie and Nicole coming behind with arm loads of heated towels. Nickie's semblance could heat water up, and Nicole's could cool it down.

Both could control water at their very whim. Lastly, their mother, being half carried by their father got into the back of the car, Jenny sat up front with Jaune. "On to the hospital I guess..." Jenny stated once the car doors had all closed and Jaune drove the car towards the hospital. So much for dinner.

They got to the hospital and their mother, as well as their father were rushed into a delivery room, leaving the seven kids to wait in a waiting room, at seven o'clock at night, having not eaten dinner. The group sat in the waiting room of the hospital, Maple being near meltdown mode, and Jackie not that far behind.

"Come on, let's go find the cafeteria." He spoke up, picking up Maple and grabbing Jackie's hand. They were about to leave the room when an older girl, about three years older then Jaune, ran into the room, her hair wet from the drizzle outside.

Janet, the oldest Ark sibling had arrived at the hospital, their father had probably called her. "Janieeeee!" Jackie shrieked, letting go of Jaune's hand, and rushing towards her oldest sibling. "Thank God." Jaune muttered, walking over to Janet as she picked up Jackie, "Dad told me to get you all fed, and my car isn't big enough, so give me the keys." Thus was the greeting Janet gave her younger brother after not seeing him for a year.

Jaune groaned, and shifted a sniffling Maple and fished the car keys out of his pocket. He handed them to her, and she marched out of the building, still holding Jackie. Jaune and Jenny looked at each other as Nickie and Nicole skipped out the door behind her, Ginger following behind. Sighing, the two followed their siblings out of the hospital. The moment they walked outside however, Maple burst into tears.

"Did mommy die?" She asked in between sniffles.

She didn't understand why they were leaving without their parents, she thought they were getting another sibling, and she was hungry, and most likely tired as well. Janet looked behind her from the driver's seat,

"No sweetie, we're just getting some food, then we're coming back okay?" Maple stopped crying but continued to sniffle, tears running down her face every so often.

* * *

Sometimes good hot food is all you need to have a four year old come back from meltdown mode. Maple was sitting and drawing, having eaten a good helping of hot spaghetti, Janet had bought coloring books as well as crayons for the kids, as well as before she had first come to the hospital, she had picked up sleeping bags for all of the siblings, they had been hidden in the back of the garage in the family home.

The hospital on the outskirts of Vale didn't really have a closing hour or a protocol for what you should do in their humongous waiting room, and they didn't care much that seven kids in ranging ages as well as one young adult were currently camped out in the back corner of their monstrous waiting room.

It wasn't as though no one else was doing the same thing. The five youngest siblings were coloring in coloring books, Jenny was drawing her own picture, another reason Ruby reminded Jaune of Jenny. Janet was reading a book, and Jaune was trying to sleep.

It was around eight thirty, and the hospital was still bustling about, in Vale, hospitals didn't have a closing time, they just kept changing shifts. It was time for Maple to literally crash, Jenny had put her into a sleeping bag, Jackie wasn't very far after, but at least she made it to her sleeping bag before falling into the abyss of sleep.

How Janet stayed up all night, Jaune would never know, but the next day, they had a new sibling.

* * *

Tuesday December 1st

Vacation day 11/23

"Gisele Ark?" A woman asked, it was around ten thirty in the morning, and Janet had taken the youngest kids to put away their sleeping bags in the car, as well as get some food for everyone. She left only Jenny, Jaune, and ten year old Ginger in the room to wait for news on their parents.

The three stood up upon hearing their mother's name, and the woman motioned for them to follow, "please don't do anything, stupid." She was definitely going to win the prize for best nurse of the year.

The three walked into the room to see their mother, along with their father. In Mrs. Arks arms was a baby boy, "come in." Their mother said quietly, and once they had, Joseph Ark pulled Jaune aside,

"where is everyone?" Jaune shrugged,

"With Janet." The man nodded and Jaune went forward to see his newest sibling, and only brother,

"His name is James." His mother told the three kids. Ginger was about to reach out and touch baby James, but her father stopped her,

"Wash your hands first." So the girl disapeared to wash her hands in the bathroom.

* * *

Letters from Frost

October 6th

Dear Weiss,

Hey sis, I'll bet you're surprised to receive at letter at Beacon, I know you never told me about your application. However, word gets around, and I hear the youngest of the Schnee children has achieved entrance into the most prestigious school on Remanent. It's been a while since I wrote to you last, I figured you'd be busy; you used to write to me all the time about leaving home and going to school in another kingdom, and congratulations on actually doing it. Father is probably furious right? I hope you know how proud I am. Mom would be proud too.

You know, the other day, someone yelled, "watch out for the frost!" And I looked around, expecting to see someone looking for me, it's not easy going by a new name in a different kingdom. I have to be careful about my glyphs as well, don't want news of where I am to reach Father, right? Remember these next words well Weiss, they might as well be the best advise I'll ever be able to give you; do your best at Beacon, make friends, tolerate people with differences to you, have an open mind, and keep an open heart. Unlike at home, not everyone is a spying enemy working for Father. Have fun and enjoy life. Maybe one day, I'll come out and see you.

Best of luck, Frost.

P.S. I hope you're still on strike and not answering Father's calls. :)

* * *

Letters from Frost

October 20th

Dear Weiss,

Hello again, I'm so glad to hear about your new friends, having a team leader like that can be a bit of a hassle, huh? When you write back one day talking about a strong friendship you've built with her, I promise I won't say that I called it, but I did. I'm glad to hear you've made such good friends with this Blake girl, Father's racism makes things a bit harder to deal with, doesn't it? He has a very corrupt form of brutal indoctrination, doesn't he? That whole sentence probably confused you, but it will make sense in time.

I hope Winter is doing well, I can't write to her for fear of her taking the sent address to Father. You know how he gets, and Winter is wrapped around his little finger. I'm about to go on a highly secretive mission, I can't tell you much about it, but because you are the only family member I trust, I, Jack Reed, also known as Frost Schnee, am, in the case of my death, entitling you to all of my belongings. I know that's a lot of weight to put on you, but I hope you trust me enough to one day do the same. I'm thinking of coming out to visit you soon. Tell me when it is a good time, and I'll be out as fast as possible.

From your proud brother, Frost.

* * *

Letters from Frost

November 5th

Dear Weiss,

I'm truly sorry to hear about what happened to your team leader, I've heard of Rado, always barely scraping by. He's a lot like that team CRDL you keep describing to me, Cray however, I only met once, he seemed like an okay guy, a bit naïve maybe, but I couldn't imagine him doing something like that. I do hope she starts to get better, she seems like a pretty durable person from what you've told me.

On to the topic of Father, Winter sent me a letter recently, she seemed angry, I don't think I'll be able to visit you anytime soon, and I've got to change my name again. Which sucks, I've just gotten used to going by Jack, but such is the life of a runaway, even though I'm legally an adult now. That's what I get for running away the day before my birthday, but I hope you understand that leaving was my only choice. Father would've locked me into a possition in the family company if I'd stayed, we both know that's one of the reasons you left as well.

Your worried brother, Frost.

P.S. When everything's calmed down a bit, I'll come out and visit you.

* * *

Letters from Frost

November 10th

Dear Weiss,

Well, your team leader must be one of the most unlucky people in Vale, I'm sorry to hear about the anxiety and depression, that's never a good mix. That kid that's crushing on you actually did something competent huh? Good on him, I'll bet he'll be a good hunter one day, Winter hasn't spoken to me since my name change, I now go by John, which is ironic since your crush-friend's name is Jaune, I don't understand why it's spelled differently, my guess is the region.

I take it, other then you're run-in with a Grimm, your field trip went well, it's too bad your first year at Beacon takes place during the Vital festival, I mean the festival will be fun, but it messes with the length of the school year, making next year much more confusing. Best of luck for the rest of the semester!

Love Frost.

* * *

Letters from Frost

November 16th

Dear Weiss,

Glad to hear your leader is making friends, and I was correct, your, Blake-friend, is a Faunus, I hope you two can become good friends, despite Father's intentions. You think this semester was hectic, wait until the festival starts, people from all different parts of the world will converge on Vale, you think the tournament at Altlas was huge? Think that, times three. Vale is much more lenient on who they let through their borders, they don't need to have documentation, they just can't have a criminal record.

I hear the Atlas specialist, Winter Schnee, is coming out in a few months, be prepared sis, she's almost as old as Father. He's grooming her into his image, and the outcome might not be pretty. Good luck with your trials to come, I love you sis.

Your proud brother, Frost.

* * *

Letters from Frost

December 2nd

Dear Weiss,

I'm sorry this letter is so short, I'm very busy, missions upon missions, you know? I'm writing to tell you that you should expect a package from me within the next few days. I hope you like it!

Love Frost.

* * *

December 4th

vacation day 5/23

Weiss sat at the desk in the dorm room. Vacation was under way, and the second semester would start up in a few weeks. Both Yang and Ruby were home in Patch, and Weiss had to admit, she envied them. Their family was dysfunctional, but it sounded so much better then the conditions under which Weiss had grown up.

She was reading ahead on her Advanced Dust Aplications text when a knock on the door sounded. Blake was off who knows where, as well as Ren and Nora, but there was a chance it could be a second year named Velvet.

Groaning, she pushed the book off of her lap and dropped it onto her desk, making sure to leave it open to the correct page. She got up and walked over to the door. Upon opening it, the last thing she was expecting was her brother to bolt into the room, grabbing the handle from her, and shutting the door as quickly as possible.

"Winter's got spy's all over the school, Father as well." He informed a speechless Weiss. He flopped onto one of the beds, Blake's bed. She wasn't really surprised about his choice of beds, Ruby's looked like it would kill whoever slept below it.

"So," he started, inspecting the titles of the stacked books keeping the bunk beds separated, "how've you been?" Weiss just stared. Her brother was seven years older then her, but sometimes he could be more clueless then Weiss herself,

"What?" She asked in complete confusion,

"Winter and Father are spying on the school." Frost reiterated, missing the fact that she was just as confused as to why he was there in the first place,

"No, I got that, but I thought you were sending me a package..."

Frost thought a moment before shrugging, he took out a small box and threw it at Weiss, "oh, that... Happy early birthday!" Weiss fumbled to catch the box, her birthday was on the sixteenth, but she didn't want anyone to know.

"What are you doing here?" Weiss finally asked, looking at the box in her hands,

"Well, it's been about seven years, thought I should drop by." He folded his hands behind his head as he spoke, and before Weiss could answer, the door opened again,

"Hey Weiss, did you-" Blake stopped short upon the sight of a foreign man lounging on her bed, and completely changed her question, "Who is he, and why is he on my bed?"

The man jumped up, and pointed at her, "You must be Blake!" He yelled in happiness, and Blake looked at Weiss in complete confusion, before returning her attention back to the young man,

"Yes, and you are...?" The man waved his hand as if it didn't matter,

"Winter'll be here any hour now, she knows." He proceeded to close the window that was always open and draw the curtains that were never drawn,

"What!?" Both girls yelled, Weiss in disbelief, Blake in complete confusion. The heiress guessed she should explain.

"He's my brother. Winter's my sister. He is Frost, he ran away seven years ago. Winter and my Father are still searching for him." Weiss explained as the two watched in disbelief as the twenty four year old jumped onto Ruby's death-trap bed and pulled the sheet closed.

"He's a little immature." Weiss whispered, only for Frost to yell back,

"I heard that!" Blake watched the whole thing in disbelief,

"You have siblings?" She asked, watching the rope strain from Frost's weight,

"Yup" Weiss must've been hanging around with Ruby too much, because she popped her 'p' just like the younger teen.

"So, where are your other two teammates?" The voice of Frost asked from withing the death-trap, Blake looked at Weiss, who shrugged and answered her older brother,

"Visiting family in Patch." The bed moved a bit from Frost moving around,

"Sounds nice." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and knowing his background, Blake was sure he meant the complete opposite. After all, Weiss had no idea how a normal family worked, it would make sense if this Frost guy didn't either.

"So, uhh... What do we do until, Winter?" She looked to Weiss to make sure she got the name correct, the pale girl nodded,

"Winter, shows up?" Weiss shrugged and went to sit back down at her desk, pulling her book back into her lap. Blake was beyond confused at that point, but decided it was better to just lay on her bed and read. About two hours later, the door opened, well, more of it was slammed open, and rocked dangerously on its hinges,

"Where is he?" A feminine voice with a heavy Atlesian accent asked. Both girls had jumped upon the door opening, and Blake seemed bewildered by the whole scenario she found herself in, Weiss however, handled it with shockingly practiced ease.

"Winter?" She asked, looking and acting completely confused. The woman, Winter, looked around the room. Frost was as still and silent as could be. So Winter sat down on the bed, directly under him.

"I suppose, while I am here, I should reminisce with my younger sister, and her..." She looked at Blake, who wasn't wearing her bow, having taken it off sometime after she'd started reading, "teammates..." Winter said the word with a bit of disdain, but didn't say anything about Blake's Heritage.

Blake glared at the woman either way, and went back to her book. Weiss meanwhile, was fuming, did no one in her family listen to her, or even tell her they were going to drop by?

To say Weiss seemed off put by her older sister's attitude, was an understatement, "So, how have you been?" Winter asked, inspecting the room with a distasteful eye,

"Good." Weiss answered shortly, not missing how Blake's ear twitched in annoyed confusion by their formality.

"And, what of your..." She looked up at the sheets drawn over the top bunk, "teammates..."

Weiss shrugged, but when her sister's eyes shot towards her, she stood up a little straiter and stiffer, "well, Ruby," she pointed to the top bunk, "is fifteen, and currently in Patch, she's with her older sister and family."

Winter's eyes widened in, an emotion Weiss couldn't place, jealousy? Hatred? Envy? "That's Blake, she's doing..." Blake looked up from her book to meet Weiss' eyes in questioning, "she's doing great..." Her ears twitched in slight amusement and she looked back down at her book.

"And what of your fourth member?" The twenty year old asked,

"Ruby's sister? Oh, shes Yang, and, she's great." Weiss answered shortly. Winter nodded, a flash of an emotion Weiss couldn't identify flew behind the woman's eyes, before she stood up from below the death trap,

"Well, I must be going, if you find news of Frost," she said his name with unadulterated hate, "please inform me, or Father." With that, the Atlesian specialist walked out the door, having it slam closed behind her.

"Well, that was... A thing." Blake echoed Yang's catchphrase, looking up at the, luckily, uninjured door, Weiss flopped onto her bed, "Uhg, my family is sooo weird!"

"Is she gone?" A voice the two had almost forgotten about asked from within Ruby's death trap, Weiss groaned again, "yea, she's gone." Frost jumped down from the bed, "oh thank God." He muttered, looking more then relived.

'Your family is crazy' Blake mouthed to Weiss, who shrugged helplessly, "I would totally stay longer if I could, but I get the feeling she'll be comin' back." Weiss frowned,

"I don't see you for seven years, then you pop in, hide in my dorm room for two hours, and leave again?" Weiss asked angrily, and Frost stopped and looked down at his baby sister.

"What? No, I'm staying for a few days at least." He answered. Blake face-faulted. So much for a relaxing vacation, the Faunus thought to herself.

* * *

Wednesday December 14th

vacation day 14/23

Poor Blake had always known Weiss had a rebellious side, but now she knew who Weiss got it from. Frost was by far, one of the weirdest people Blake had met. For three days straite, he hadn't left the dorm room, fear of Winter's so called spys.

But man could that guy do some stupid things. Once the bookworm had come back to the dorm to find a towering card castle, hed probably used upwards twenty decks to make it.

And Weiss was right there next to him, helping add on cards to their monstrous tower. Another time, she'd come in to find him balancing books instead of cards, Weiss cheering him on. This was a side of the heiress that Blake had only seen a few times, when she balanced books on her rapier for example.

Seeing it now, was slightly heartwarming. It reminded Blake of her family. The one she'd been separated from, all those years ago. Maybe one day she would find them. Maybe she should search their names on immigration lists.

Why she had never done this before, boggled Blake's mind, but none of her attempts to find her family were fruitful. Blake told herself it didn't matter, but deep down, she felt like breaking into a fit of frustrated tears.

Nine days had passed since Frost's arrival, and now he was leaving. He and Weiss hugged each other tightly, and Frost whispered something that even with her superior hearing, Blake couldn't make out.

He left, and only after Weiss closed the door, did she let a single tear fall. She berated herself, she'd cried more in the last few months then in most of her lifetime combined, a whopping two times. Blake didn't comment on it though, she was on the brin, of tears herself.

Both girls had pulled themselves back together by the time RY returned from Patch, late in the afternoon. At least half of their team got a relaxing break.

* * *

Thursday December 15th

vacation day 15/23

The next day, Ren and Nora turned up. Ren seemed okay, a little tired maybe, but the members RWBY were more worried about Nora.

The girl entered the common area, trailing behind Ren. Not a word was exchanged between her and anyone else, she just went upstairs, presumably to bed. They'd asked Ren what had happened, but he wasn't telling them much, he went upstairs as well, and the two weren't seen again until the next day.

Not that either of them answered any questions. Not much else happened during the rest of vacation, eight days of peace, and, in Blake's mind, it was overdue.

* * *

Friday, December 23rd

Vacation day 23/23

Both Jaune and Pyrrah were returning from visiting their families. And upon entering the common room, they found Ren sittin at a table, reading a book. Nora was snoring next to him, Yang sitting on the couch watching the television while Blake read a book next to her.

At the same table as Ren and Nora, Weiss and Ruby were arguing, Mertanaster in twelve different pieces on the table in front of them. Ren looked up from his book upon their entrance,

"Welcome back." He stated simply, Nora waking up next to him. In the days after their adventure home, Nora had quickly bounced back, especially since Ren had driven it home that the man was a murderer, and the court would've given him that punishment anyway, and if she didn't kill him, he would've killed them.

Yang and Blake got up and walked over to the table as JP converged on it.

"So, how was everyone's vacation?" Pyrrah asked. It was an innocent question, but Nora laughed nervously while Ren put his head onto the book laying open on the table. Weiss smiled fondly while Blake got a very, very annoyed, as well as confused look on her face.

Yang shrugged and Ruby answered with a, "not much."

Jaune just answered with, "I have a baby brother now."

"well..." Pyrrah looked around at her friends, "I guess it's been an interesting few weeks, hasn't it?" She asked, and Ren, lifting his face out of his book muttered,

"More then you will ever know."

Blake nodded, "So true." Before walking away, presumably to her dorm room,

"Yup." Weiss added, following the Faunus. Nora laughed nervously again, and Ruby looked around, before saying in an uncertain voice,

"I thought it was kinda nice..."

* * *

Monday December 24th

Profesor Peach droned on about what was going on over the course of the next week. About forty-two students sat, either bord out of their proverbial tree, or diligently filling out a schedule, others were flat out sleeping.

It was around 10:30 in the morning, and the teacher had been talking for an hour already. Most of the students would be in his Geometry class next, and that would go till lunch. The students from other academies were already largely integrated into the classes, leaving them slightly overflowing, yet still below capacity.

Students in varying uniforms dotted each and every class, to the point where no one really cared if you were wearing a uniform or not. It was still customary though, even if it wasn't unusual to see a few students not wearing their uniforms, the vast majority did. At 10:40, the bell rang, and the students who didn't have geometry left the room. As Ruby sat waiting for the next lecture to begin, she looked at the faces she knew in the class.

Nora and Ren sat in front of her, she was in a corner, near the door that Peach left open at her request. The members of team SSSN, minus their namesake, sat across the room, sparsely spread out. Velvet sat in the back corner, next to Fox, with Yatsuhashi close behind. The weeks Ruby had spent at home helped her bounce back to much of her old self. How she and her sister kept what happened away from their dad was a complete mystery to the reaper.

When she asked Yang about it, the girl had explained to her that their dad would never be as attentive as other parents, he just didn't have it in him anymore. She made sure Ruby knew that he tried, and did his best, he just fell short sometimes. Ruby understood, but in a way, it still hurt that her only parent didn't know when something was wrong. Yang justified it by asking how he was supposed to know if no one told him. Ruby didn't have an answer for her, but it still hurt.

Peach began his Geometry class, and Ruby began taking notes on the lecture for the day. She knew she hadn't been speaking much, not as much as she used to, when she got going though, she was the same old Ruby, brain going a mile a second, and mouth struggling to keep up. It's not that she just didn't want to talk as much, she just didn't feel like it. She hated math, it was the only class she couldn't use pictograms for.

Pictograms and numbers didn't mix. So she took notes and every so often doodled on the sides and margin's of her paper. Dragons and flowers, as well as swords. She still drew dripping blood, but it wasn't a depressive choice anymore, she just liked the way it looked, substituting blood for water. She had seen folders of her mom's art, she did dark pieces as well, so Ruby didn't find anything really wrong with it.

Eleven thirty rolled around, and the bell rang. Ruby put away her notebook and pencils slowly, waiting for the crowd of students to dissipate. Ren and Nora waited and left with her, but upon entering the cafeteria, they separated to sit with Jaune and Pyrrah. Ruby went to join her teammate's.

"So," she plopped down onto the seat at the table, "what's going on?" She asked, only to flinch as a piece of fruit flew from across the room and into Yang's mouth,

"oh nothing much," Weiss stated sarcastically, "Yang's just doing something stupid again." Blake snickered from where she sat, in between Yang and Weiss, reading. Yang threw a thumbs up sign to Jaune who had thrown the grape. Nora was laughing, and picking up grapes as well.

"You know what I think?" Yang asked, keeping an eye on Nora, who appeared to be collecting fruits, "I think we should do something really cool after classes today." Another grape flew towards Yang, this time thrown by Nora, the girl again court it with her mouth, and Weiss asked,

"Like what?" Yang shrugged,

"I don't know, but I like to start out everything with a Yang!" Ruby stopped eating and looked at her sister in annoyance, as sis Blake, who looked up from her book. Weiss glared at her, and a tomato flew across the room, courtesy of Nora.

The fruit hit Yang on the head and splattered in her hair. It was official, Nora had a death wish. Yang grabbed an apple off her sister's plate, eliciting an angry

"Hey!" From the reaper, and threw it strait at Nora, who ducked, her exited voice yelling,

"Ha ha, you missed!" Effectively egging Yang on. While this was happening, Weiss spoke to Ruby,

"Hey did you take my binder? I can't find it." Ruby shrugged, kicking her bag under the table,

"I am not a crook."

Weiss groaned, "You see, that makes me think you are."

Ruby just shrugged again. Weiss was about to say something else, but a pie flew into her face, splattering all over her, Blake ducked out of the way to avoid pie shrapnel, and Ruby laughed,

"Get Nora!" She yelled, launching cookies across the room, even though the rest of team juniper either had horrified looks directed at Nora, head slammed on the table (Ren) or terrified by what Ruby had propositioned. Pyrrah was the first one, besides Nora, to join in the fun,

"Get them!" She yelled, in a rare show of enjoyment.

Blake was quick in shoving her book into a backpack, and food began to fly, small fruits at first, and students began to subtly leave the room, until a member of team CRDL yelled,

"Food fight!" Screaming could be heard, and the mass of students still in the cafeteria began to rush out of the room. Nora and Ren began to stack up tables to make a protective fort. At least that was Ren's intention, he didn't expect Nora to jump on top of the structure at yell her signature line,

"I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!"

He didn't bother stopping her this time. Jaune and Pyrrah managed to hold off team RWBY until that point, when Ruby yelled something to her teammates and raced towards Jaune. She hit him at full speed, and he flew towards a window, hitting it and sliding down it as Sun and Neptune walked by.

Ruby yelled encouragement to her teammate's and crushed a box of milk, the fight was officially on.

Nnora laughed as she stood atop her tower, but upon seeing Yang approaching quickly, she jumped up and grabbed a flag pole, hanging high above the cafeteria. Detaching it from the wall, she came rushing towards the ground.

Once there, she jammed the opposite end into a watermelon, and launched herself towards Yang. Yang there a punch at Nora, but the pink clad girl was faster, slamming her melon-hammer up into Yang and catapoulting her through the roof.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled, grabbing a tray and beginning to surf across the tables towards Pyrrah, rose petals scattering behind her. Pyrrah grabbed two bread sticks, proving herself adept at duel wielding, she blocked the tray used by Ruby, who tumbled away, yet still managed to stick a landing.

Weiss grabbed some ketchup and mustard bottles and unloaded them onto the ground, detouring Ren who was running towards her with two long sticks of a leafy green plant.

Meanwhile Jaune had peeled himself off the window, and came charging in at Blake, even through a food fight, everyone could see his noticeably improved form. He came strait for the Faunus, and caught her off guard, she tried to block but to no avail, in the end, she flew backwards towards a wall.

She landed in a pile of discarded food and trays, as Ruby caught herself from falling in her attemp to hit Pyrrah with a tray.

Ren and Pyrrah began to run towards Weiss and Ruby. The two glanced at each other before Ruby disapeared in a cloud of rose petals. Weiss picked up a sword fish, Ruby was going to ask the staff about the weird food available in the cafeteria, some of it was just plain weird...

Weiss launched herself, and her swordfish, towards Pyrrah, but had to dodge at the last second as Ren came in from the side.

Rose petals surrounded Weiss, and when they cleared, Weiss was twenty feet away, and standing there to take the hit, was Ruby. Ruby flew backwards, and thanks to Pyrrah, who used cans as projectiles to fling at the heiress, so did Weiss.

Ruby was flying towards a wall, when an idea came to her, she flipped around in midair, and used her semblance. Weiss kept flying and hit a wall, falling to the ground and being quick to regain her footing.

Ruby meanwhile, was flying towards team JNPR, her semblance in full force, picking up the food, cans, and even the trays in her wind wake. Her cape wrapped around her and she began to look like a rose bud, flying through the air with an incredible speed.

Rose petals melded with the food filled expanse. The members of team JNPR lost their footing, and one by one, begame trapped, flying through the air in the wind wake.

Now was the hard part, Ruby had no idea how to stop. She managed to figure it out just before she hit the wall, causing a crater to be created by the force at which she had been going. "Wow..." She whispered, before turning around and seeing her wind wake coming at her, her eyes widened and she jumped upward as high as she could, using her semblance in this newfound way to launch herself above her wind wake.

She left JNPR to crash into her crater, flood, cans, trays, even a stray chair or two, came crashing into the team as Ruby landed in front of it.

Ruby had been mistaking, now was the hard, Aura exhaustion. She teetered on her feet, the world spinning from her use of aura. Blake, who had picked herself up after hitting the wall, and had watched the scene in fascination, looked down at her scroll.

The aura meters of her team were displayed on the screen. Ruby's hovered right above two percent. Team JNPR fell off the wall, covered in food, team RWBY had won.

Weiss ran over to aske if the reaper was okay, Blake followed behind and JNPR picked themselves up. The doors slammed open, and a woman shoved Sun and Neptune out of the way. Blake idly wondered when the two had come in, after all, poor Neptune was covered in grape soda.

Glynda Goodwitch harrumphed and waved what Weiss thought looked like a riding crop, she had argued with Ruby over it being that, the younger girl had been adamant that it was, in fact, a wand. The tables began to right themselves, the crater fixed itself, the food flew into trash cans, the trays stacked up on top. The benches and chairs flew to their spots next to the tables.

Blake and Weiss, as well as JNPR, watched in fascination, Ruby was just trying to keep her eyes open, sitting on the nearest table. Glynda pushed her glasses up her nose, "children please, do, not, play, with your food." She stated.

The six kids who were paying attention could feel the anger coming off the woman in waves. Until professor Ozpin approached, "Glynda..." The waves off anger began to dissipate, even if they did momentarily spike again when Yang fell through her newly fixed roof.

* * *

Tuesday December 25th

"A what!?" Weiss shrieked as Ruby jumped around Yang, who held a box a over her head. Other then the box, and the circling fifteen year old, she was standing casually near her bunk bed, Blake laying on the bottom bunk, book open, but laying on her stomach. Weiss stood on the other side of the room, arms outspread, and a look of suspicion spread on her face.

"A board game!" Ruby yelled, grabbing again for the box, held high above her head by her much taller sister. Being 5'10" had its advantages when your sister was barely 4'6", but Yang wasn't one to boast.

"You're serious?" Weiss asked, disbelief evident in her voice. When Ruby didn't answer her, she looked to Yang,

"She's serious?" She asked, fear edging onto her disbelieving voice, Yang just shrugged. However, the blonde's attention was drawn back to her sister when rose petals began to scatter. Ruby jumped upwards, and with the help of her newfound aspect of semblance, went high enough to grab the box from her sister.

Ruby reapeared a few feet away from Yang, next to Weiss. Looking to her partner, she said, "your playing a board game." She grabbed the girl's wrist, and ran, semblance involuntarily activating as she rounded the corner and flew out into the hall.

In the span of twenty seconds, Ruby had done two things Yang had never seen her do before. Use her semblance to propel herself upwards, and use it while transporting another person.

"Since when can she do that?" She pointed towards the door, and looked behind her at a very disinterested Blake, who shrugged,

"I don't know, maybe sixteen/seventeen hours..."

* * *

Team RWBY sat at a table in the library. Well more like some of them sat, and some of JNPR sat as well, "eight people for a four player game?" Ruby asked quietly, the game was spread out and everyone was looking down at it. Pyrrah to the rescue, again.

"Why don't we each play the game with our partners?" She asked. Looking at Jaune, and successfully hiding a blush. Ruby's finger shot into the air as she yelled, "that could work!" If she heard Ren, who was reading while standing next to Nora groan, she ignored it.

"Okay, so Pyrrah and Jaune are Mantle, Nora and Ren are Vacuo, Blake and Yang are Vale, and me and Weiss..."

She ignored Weiss's mutter of, "Weiss and I..." And continued talking, "...are Mistral." And so the game began, Blake and Yang quickly bagan to gain more land and resources, as did Jaune and Pyrrah.

Ren was busy reading, and Nora was very, very bad at the game. The two were the first to be taken out of the game. Ren never even looked up from his book, but Nora did fall asleep on it. Luckily she was on his left side.

Ruby and Weiss were having a bout of bad luck, losing more and more land to the teams who were quickly becoming world powers. After Vacuo, Mistral was the second to fall. Around that time was when a voice could be heard, "hey losers."

The group looked up, most of them not used to the greeting, "oh, hey Sun." Yang stated as an after though, as she took a card from Jaune and Pyrrah. Sun, in the company of Neptune leaned over to look at Blake's hand,

"I never saw you as the board game playing type." Blake shrugged as Yang handed her the card she'd taken from JP.

"Aren't libraries for reading?" Neptune asked, and Ren looked up from where he was sitting,

"Thank you!" He yelled, only to have a few students across the room shush him. He had thrown his hands upwards in his initial outburst, but when he threw them back down, he narrowly missed the game board. Nora continued to snore.

"Don't be a nerd." Sun spoke up, jabbinge Neptune playfully, but both he and Ren glared at him. However, it was the blue haired teen that replied,

"Hey-hey, intellectual." He defended himself, pointing at Sun.

"Whatever..." Sun muttered. (Jaune and Pyrrah won the game by the way.)

* * *

Team RWBY and half of team SSSN were walking through the streets of Vale. The sun was setting, and the sky cast different shades of orange and red across itself. "I know a really good noodle place." Sun was saying as the group walked.

Yang shrugged, "sounds good." Before the group could do anything though, a crashing sound, along with distressed screaming could be heard.

"Uh, what was that?" Ruby asked, looking towards the warehouse district, where the sound had come from.

"We should find out." Blake stated, watching workers run away from that area and towards the shopping district, where they were. The group started towards the district when Ruby stopped,

"I can't go there..." She whispered, grabbing onto Yangs arm to get the older girl's attention. Yang stopped and bit her lip in thought. Weiss, the only other person who stopped near the sisters, looked towards the sounds of crashing. They were moving quickly,

"Blake, can you tell what's going on?" She whispered. The Faunus nodded, and looked towards Sun, who nodded,

"We'll go check out what's going on, I know it's heading for the freeways though." She looked to Ruby who nodded.

Blake and Sun began to run towards the warehouse district, jumping up onto roofs at one point to avoid the crowds. Ruby watched them go before frowning in thought, "Neptune and-" Weiss waved her hand frantically, causing Ruby to give her a confused look,

"Weiss?" She asked the girl, wondering if she was okay. Weiss' hands shot into the air,

"Yes!" Ruby just barely caught on,

"Head towards the start of the freeways near the warehouse district, what ever it is, it's big."

The two nodded and ran off, leaving the sisters to stand there alone for a moment, until Yang looked down at her shivering sister, "you okay?" She asked, placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder, inadvertently grounding the girl,

"Yea, I'm fine, lets go." She started walking in the direction Weiss and Neptune had gone,

"Where?" Yang asked idly, running for a second to catch up.

"Weiss and Neptune are watching the freeway entrance, we need to find a good place to stop what ever is happening. Yang nodded and followed her little sister towards the rows of speeding cars, all lifted above the ground in strange ways.

About fifteen minutes later, Weiss and Neptune could be seen, running as fast as they could,

"Robot!" Neptune yelled, causing Weiss to groan as they stopped in from of Ruby and Yang, "it's so big!" Neptune breathed, Weiss cut in,

"It's a paladin." She was out if breath, but she still managed to sound aloof.

"Where are Sun and Blake?" Ruby asked, scanning the now empty road with her eyes,

"Fighting it-" she stopped, watching a gigantic machine fly towards them, running at speeds that could give Ruby a run for her money.

Behind it were Sun and Blake, trying to attack it. Not that it was working... Ruby threw a glance at Weiss, who jumped forward and threw her rapier 'so tip onto the assault.

Ice spread around the entire freeway, and working as one unit, Yang threw a punch, while Neptune attacked with his weapon, Weiss and Ruby jumped to the empty ground below the freeways. Blake followed seconds later. Soon after, Yang jumped down. And a few seconds after that, the paladin began its downward decent.

It hit the ground with a large thud, causing most of RWBY to stumble before regaining their balance. Ruby stared up at the huge machine, a mixture of wonder and determination the destroy. The machine began it's attack,

"Now!" Ruby yelled, and Weiss repeated her earlier motion of spreading ice across the ground,

"Yang!" Ruby yelled, watching the machine begin running towards them, yang took a cue and punched the ice, unloading a shot of dust into it, causing an explosion of steam across most the the ground. And right in the middle, was the paladin.

Whether or not Blake was standing near Ruby, she still would've heard the girl say, "let's go." And the two ran into the steam just as Weiss and Yang jumped out of it.

"Aim for the places where the machines arms and legs can bend." Ruby told her before launching up into the air with the help of her scythe, and hitting the machine square on the shoulder. Red lasers began to search for the machine's prey, but they were easily evaded by the two girls attacking the paladin.

All to soon, however, and the steam cleared into a light mist, the machine could see again,

"Yang, Blake!" Ruby yelled, and the girls attacked, Blake throwing half of gambol shroud to Yang who jumped around hitting every spot she could. Ruby, from a short distance away, looked at Weiss, "we need to slow it down," the heiresss told her, giving Ruby an idea.

She implanted an end of Crescent Rose into the ground, and readied to fire,

"Put ice glyphs in front of the barrel." She told her partner,

"This is a bad idea..." Weiss muttered, but did so anyway.

Crescent rose shot through the glyphs, over and over, each hit landing on a part of the machine that acted as a joint. "That should work." Ruby stated, standing up and swirling Crescent Rose around herself, Weiss nodded and slid forwards to attack the slowed down machine.

Blake and Yang backed off, but Weiss was immidietly thrown out of the way by the machine's arm, it threw its unbending self into her, shattering the ice on its 'elbow' and throwing the heiress around twenty feet away. But not before Weiss could cast a Time dilation Glyph on the closest person, Blake.

Blake flew around the machine, taking stabs at a speed just below Ruby's and finally, one of its arms stopped moving. Yang jumped up to take a hit at the machine's main control center, but the other arm smacked her away and into a cement pole twelve feet away.

She crashed through the pole at a high speed and her body fell limp as it hit the ground, "Yang!" Blake yelled, and started to run towards her friend, but Ruby held her arm out, and with her scythe stopped the girl, effectively barring her way, "she's fine, her semblance protects her, and makes her stronger."

Yang stood up, her eyes open, and a stunning scarlet red, rivaling Ruby's cape. Yang began a ruthless attack on the paladin, and with every punch, it began to fall apart. Soon it was in pieces, and a Roman Torchwick was standing in the rumble, brushing his cloths off,

"Since when has he been in that thing?" Ruby asked Blake, who was standing next to her, as though Yang destroying an antiretroviral mech was a normal uccurance. Blake shrugged,

"He was in a White Fang meeting, then he got mad and the crashing sounded, he got into a mech and started chasing some defectors, at least that's what I was told..."

She watched Yang start towards the man, " Then he saw me and Sun." She said it as though it explained everything, and, in a way, it probably did. A multicolored girl jumped in front of Roman just as Yang attacked, but as her punch drew closer, the image of Roman and Color-Girl actually shattered.

Pieces flying like glass before disintigrating. Yang's eyes flitted back and forth to lilac as she looked around for the perpetrators. Weiss had by then, picked herself up and walked over to Blake and Ruby, just as a bullhead flew upwards into the air.

Yang backed away from it and towards the rest of her team as it flew away, "well..." She looked around her team, "that was, a thing, I guess..." Weiss, Blake and Ruby nodded.

* * *

"I don't think that's how it works..." Yang muttered as Ruby fumbled with the cables to their holographic devise. Ruby didn't answer, but when it finally flickered on, she cast her sister a smug smile. Yang sighed in desperation.

"What are you two even doing?" Ruby didn't look up from where she was attaching a smaller device to the now working holographic one,

"Setting up a new game." Weiss groaned,

"We have school tomorrow!" Ruby shrugged,

"So?" Weiss groaned, and stomped out of the room. Just another normal day of classes, board games, and fighting giant mechs, suddenly Ruby thought of something,

"Hey, what happened to Sun and Neptune while we were fighting that paladin thing?" Yang shrugged,

"Dunno..."

* * *

The red of the week was fairly uneventful, but it was now Friday, and Ruby had noticed a Chang in her team's dynamics. Blake seemed entirely drained, she wasn't sleeping, Yang and Weiss were busy planning for a dance, it would be on Sunday, and Ruby herself, was largely left to her own devises.

That Friday, Ruby sat at an undeclared table in the auditorium, last time she had been in this room, a crazy person had grabbed her, drugged her, and trapped her somewhere for about a day in a tiny room with no food or water.

Granted this time there would be more security, but still, it was eerie. Ruby was resting her head on the table, one arm outstreached across the table and another arm curled under her head. She watched Weiss and Yang setting up for a dance she really didn't want to go to.

Weiss was looking at samples for table cloths, but to Ruby, they both looked the same. She had told the older girl that herself, but Weiss hadn't listened.

Yang was moving around speakers that weighed more then, well most things that people needed help just to drag a few feet in one direction. She hefted them up with ease that seemed to make the altesian soldiers, keeping watch over the autitorium, jealous.

"What's wrong Rubes?" Yang asked, setting down a speaker that made the chair and table ruby was sitting at jump off the ground a little,

"I don't know..." Ruby muttered, not looking up from the wall across the room. That is, until Yang moved to stand in front of her line of sight.

Ruby's eyes flitted up to her sister, "you pick out a dress?" Yang asked, leaning on the table, Ruby groaned,

"Yea..." Yang smiled before looking around,

"Where's Blake?" She asked,

"Dunno..." Was the only answer she recived. Yang exhaled a huff of air, before walking out of the room.

"What was that about?" Weiss asked, walking over to Ruby, who had sat up by that point. Ruby just shrugged,

"I dunno." Weiss sighed, and looked to Ruby, showing her two samoles of colored fabrics,

"Which color?" One was labled white blue, the other was called periwinkle.

That was the only difference, once again, Ruby asked, "aren't they both the same?" Weiss snatched up the samples angrily,

"What are you, color blind?" She asked, before stomping away. Ruby sighed and put her head back down on the table. Idly she wondered what Blake was doing, and where her sister was.

* * *

Ruby sat doing some homework, not that it was due any time soon, she was just getting it out of the way. Wiess was pacing, checking off things in her mind to make sure she had everything to finish setting up the autitorium the next day. Sunday was the dance, and Monday was the day they would recive their first mission.

Yang walked in through the open door, but before she could disapear into the bathroom, Weiss stopped her, causing Ruby to look up from her homework,

"Have you seen Blake?" The pale girl asked. Yang smiled,

"Yea, shes fine, why?" Weiss ahifted her weight,

"Well remember how she turned Sun down for the dance-" Yang cut the girl off,

"Dont worry, I'm pretty sure they're going together." She gave no more information but diapeared into the bathroom. Weiss threw a questioning look at Ruby, who shrugged and gave her an 'I have no idea' look before going back to her schoolwork.

* * *

The day before the dance, and Blake seemed a lot more open, and a lot more rested. Weiss and Yang seemed less occupied, and Ruby found herself less lonely. Blake sat and read while Ruby idly shuffled a deck of cards.

Around them was a nearly finished autitorium, ready for a night of dancing. Ruby just couldn't wait... Dancing and people in close proximity, it was like goimg to Vale, on,y a hundred times worse. Vale, she could handle.

A girl she had come to know as Emerald came in, the two had met in a sparring class, Ruby's team had been to busy doing things, and JNPR, exept for pyrrah, had a different class to go to. The two girls hit it off, at least from Ruby's point of view.

Their first conversation had been because Pyrrah, and Emerald's feiend mercury were in a sparring match.

"Hey Ruby, have you seen Merc?" She asked,

"Nope." Ruby answered, shuffling the cards at, frankly, an alarming speed. Emerald seemed to take note of that, but didnt comment on it.

"Oh, well okay, bye.."'

She walked away, and Yang walked over to Ruby, who shuffled the deck again, "new friend?" Ruby didn't answer, only shuffled the deck again before speaking,

"yup."

* * *

The night of the dance, Yang stood in a stunning dress, a soft briwn with highly ornate sunflowers sewn along the skirt part. The leaves and stems becoming part of the bottom fringe of the dress. She was greeting students as they came through the door.

Sun and Blake came in, arm in arm, and Yang had to admit, they made a cute couple. Weiss was around somewhere going perfectionist on some flowers. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she had been shot down.

Ruby came in in a red dress with black trimmings, and Yang had gushed about how beautiful her baby sister looked in a dress and heels. Ruby's anly answer had been a question about how weiss even walked, let alone fought in high heels.

JNPR had come in at separate times, Ren and Nora had come to eat the food, jaune had snuck in without Yangs notice, and Pyrrah had come, alone. The girl had looked down, so Yang stood talking to her for a few minutes.

Ruby's friend, Emerald had come in, she was in the company of her teammate Mercury. Yang didn't trust either of them, the girl always seemed to show up at suspicious times, talk for only a few moments then disapear again. Whatever it was that set Yang into protective mode, it didn't matter in that moment, because the dance was under way.

* * *

What Yang Did to Get Blake to go to the Dance?

Blake sat alone in the library, researching recent Faunus rights movements. She was getting nowhere, but she had to keep going. She owed it to the people she'd hurt, the people who she'd lied to, and the people she'd stolen from.

Dark circles were budding under her eyes. She was usually a night person, staying up late and going to sleep right after class was over, only to wake up for dinner and stay awake till around three in the morning.

For the past two or three days, she'd had maybe an hour of sleep, which was worse then that episode of insomnia Ruby had had the one time. Her eyes where starting to glaze over when a red dot appeared on the screen she was using.

Agrivating, she tried to ignore it at first. Maybe pressing on it would make it go away. Nope. Each time she made it disapear, it would reappear elsewhere on the screen.

Finally she'd had enough. Standing up, she growled in frustration as she turned away from the screen. At least she was free form... The... Dot... It was on the floor a few feet away from her. Letting out another angry growl, she clenched her hands into fists, and continued to try and murder the little red dot.

It rounded the corner, and she knew she could catch it if she could just... Bam! She rounded the corner and ran strait into Yang. The blonde was holding a laser pointer.

Before Blake could even begin to be mad however, Yang spoke in an overly cheerful voice, to the point that it hurt Blake to ever think about feeling that happy, "we, need to talk." She grabbed Blake by the arm, and dragged her away. Blake was too tired to struggle.

Yang made her way to an empty lecture hall, and once inside closed the door. She sat on the desk and watched Blake begin to pace, and finally question the blonde's reasons, "what are you even doing?" Blake practically yelled, motioning towards the girl with her hands.

Yang sighed, in situations where the person you were trying to reason with was beyond the threshold of their own mind, it was best to approach calmly, and slowly,

"Sit down." She asked Simon, and Blake only glared at her. "Please?" She asked, patting the surface of the desk next to where she was sitting cross legged. Blake gave a Yang an agrivated sigh and sat lightly in the edge of the desk.

"What do you want?" Yang smiled,

"To tell you a story." Blake stared at the girl, trying to comprehend her words,

"A story?" She asked skeptically. Either she was delirious and hallucinating, or Yang had lost it.

But the blonde continued with her story, she also got up and grabbed a piece of chalk, "Growing up on Patch was amazing, but Ruby had a really hard time. You know, I was seven when I rode in a car for the first time, a neighbor bought one, and wanted to give my family a ride. It was a truck, a big flatbed, Ruby and I had never been in one before." Yang sighed and absentmindedly drew the truck,

"Ruby wanted to ride inside it. So she sat in the back seat with Qrow, while me and our parents rode in the flat bed. A few other neighbors were there."

She began to absentmindedly draw an emblem that looked similar to Ruby's, yet had its core differences. While Ruby usually portrayed her emblem with an inlaid cross, and it was even registered as such, this emblem was more like the one pinned to her belt at all times.

"It was really fun at first, then, Qrow realized there was something wrong with Ruby. She was hyperventilating, and getting really fidgety. She started complaining about the walls, and not being able to breath. The neighbor who was driving us started to worry, the window to the flatbed was open, and everyone in the back of the truck started to get worried too. That only seemed to make Ruby worse, and she passed out."

Yang stopped looking at the emblem she was drawing, and at Blake, who she realized had her full attention. "I was seven, I had just had my birthday, Ruby was only three. That was when the neighbor decided to get us to the emergency room on the other side of Patch, as fast as possible. Once we got there, the doctors examined her, they told us she probably just had a panic attack. When Rubes woke up, they asked her questions and ran some tests."

Yang looked back at the board and finished drawing the emblem.

"They told us she had Claustrophobia, and Anxiety. They told us how to help her with panic attacks." Yang fished out a devise from a concealed pocket in her jacket. She handed it to Blake,

"Inhalers aren't just for asthma, I still carry Ruby's around just in case she has a really bad attack again. We used to have to use it all the time." Blake handed the inhaler back to Yang, and the blonde continued, "Ruby grew up being made fun of, the year after she was diagnosed, our mom, Summer died."

Blake's eyes widened, and Yang smiled weakly, "our dad just... Shut down, and after a few weeks, Qrow told us why, this was the second wife he lost, the first, was my mom. Raven. My uncle's twin sister."

Yang turned around and began drawing another emblem, "My dad never fully recovered, and my uncle wasn't in any shape to be raising two kids on his own. He was an alcoholic. He did his best though, but he still missed some things." Yang continued to draw the intricate designes on the board.

"After Summer died, I started to look for my mom, like Summer, she'd just disapeared, but there wasn't much evidence as to what happened. I looked for clues everywhere, I asked everyone. And here's where I tell you something you can't tell anyone."

Yang turned abruptly around to look Blake in the eye, "Ruby doesn't even know, she doesn't know I was looking for my mom, and she doesn't know about her ability." Yang closed her eyes. It was as though she were contemplating actually telling Blake, "It's magic, there's no other way to explain it, Ruby has silver eyes, I'm sure you've heard of the old tale."

Blake nodded, and Yang smiled weakly, "My, well Ruby's mom, had the same ability, and Ruby inherited it, but she doesn't know. Ever since she was born, Grimm have shown up on Patch, even though they should fear a silver eyed warrior, but a baby with that power, is so much more vulnerable."

Yang sighed looking at the emblem she'd finished before putting down the chalk, "A year after Summer died, I found a clue. Ruby wasn't even five yet, I took her any way, but I shouldn't 'ave. Grimm were attracted to her like magnets back then, and we got attacked." Yang looked down at the ground, seemingly ashamed with herself, before looking up, she continued her story.

"Grimm, everywhere, then, suddenly, Ruby's eyes started glowing, and she," yang stopped, chocking on her own words, "She started to scream in pain as the light coming from her eyes got brighter."

Yang stopped, catching her breath, and reigning herself in, "But before it could get any worse, all the Grimm were attacked by another person. He killed them all in seconds, my uncle Qrow." Yang smiled slightly,

"He had no choice but to tell me about Ruby. She could, in fact, be much more powerful then Summer, and eventually, maybe anyone." Yang smiled fondly at the thought of her younger sister, "But it didn't change the fact that I almost got us killed that day."

She looked Blake in the eye and laid the final blow, "My recklessness almost got us killed." Yang looked at the ground in shame again. Blake seemed genuinely worried about that story, but annoyance crept onto her features,

"But this is-" Yang but her off, she didn't want an argument,

"It may be different, but the core essence is the same! I'm not telling you this because I want to, I'm doing it because I have to. You need to rest."

"But I can't just sto-" Yang groaned, Blake would fight this to the bitter end, wouldn't she?

"I'm not telling you to stop, I'm telling you to slow down. In your condition, you won't be able to actually stop anything." Blake frowned,

"But-"

"Blake!" Yang yelled, her eyes turning red for a second before she got a hold of herself, "Just cool down, take a break, go to the dance, come back to this with fresh eyes. If not for yourself, then for the people you care ?"

Yang pleaded, and Blake sighed, closing her tired eyes, "Okay." Yang nodded, excepting the answer she recived, and walking away,

"See you later?" She saw Blake nodd before she closed the door.

* * *

Back to the present

Ruby stood at the concession stand. There was too many people, too many dark corners, it was so loud. So she stood there with a cup of punch, next to a platter of chocolates. She took a sip from her cup, and shuffled her feet, she felt naked without her cape. And vulnerable without anyone with her.

The voice of Ozpin nearly scared her out of her skin, she let out a quiet eep, "I'm sorry, did I scare you?" The man asked her, pouring himself a cup of punch.

"Oh, no, I'm fine." Ruby assured him, before continuing to shuffle her feet. Ozpin stood next to her, watching the dancing students, and sipped his punch,

"Not enjoying yourself?" He asked the obviously uncomfortable girl, Ruby looked up at him, confusion evident on her face,

"How did you-" Ozpin smiled,

"I know your father and uncle fairly well, your aunt disapeared before you were born, she was on a mission I sent her on, your mother chose her own mission however, I advised her to take it. I've made many mistakes Ruby, but I still don't think bringing you here is one of them."

Ruby was at a loss, this was really off topic from the formal conversation they were having before. "Uhm..." Ozpin wasn't done yet,

"Your father spoke to me a week after your initiation, he told me about your clustrophobia, and Axiety problems." Ruby gave him a funny look, but Ozpin smiled at the memory, "He told me it was a horrible idea to send you here."

He looked down at the young girl, "You have had your trials, and you will have many more, but let's prove your father wrong, shall we?" He smiled and the girl nodded,

"Yes sir." Ozpin nodded as well before adding,

"Many students come to me if they need someone to talk to, feel free to do so as well."' the man walked away to where Glynda was standing, but not before he said one more thing, "and do enjoy the dance." With that, he was gone.

Ruby shifted her weight from heel to heel, her feet really hurt... She watched Jaune come up to Pyrrah who was about to ascend the stairs. Soon he turned around and made his way over to the punch bowl, and inadvertently, Ruby.

"Hangin around the punch bowl too?" He asked, turning to stand next to her,

"Yup." Said the ambidextrous girl, Jaune smiled, "to the socially awkward." He held his cup towards her's, she giggled and clinked her cup against his.

"So, you come alone too?" She asked the older boy,

"Yup." He answered, watching Pyrrah walk up the stairs.

"Why didn't you go with Pyrrah?" Ruby asked, looking to where he was staring, the door Pyrrah had exited through, Jaune froze and looked down at her,

"It's, it's complicated..."

"How?" Ruby challenged, her naïveté showing in full force, Jaune stopped, he didn't have an answer for her, his shoulders fell,

"I don't know.." Ruby frowned,

"It's not to late-" Jaune cut her off,

"She probably has a date anyway." Ruby groaned,

"Just go talk to her, she likes you, and you like her, even I can tell." Jaune stopped and looked down at her. She didn't leave room for an argument though, and pointed towards the stairs,

"Fine..." He shoved his half filed cup into Ruby's left hand, "Hold my punch."

"Yea, yea," Ruby muttered, watching him walk away. Being ambidextrous had its drawbacks, her cup was in her right hand, and just like so many times before, Ruby held up her left hand on accident.

Who cared though, she knew Jaune wasn't coming back. Ruby had indirectly played matchmaker with her friends who were crushing on each other. Smiling to herself, she finished both cups of punch, before going up the stairs to the inner balcony where her sister was.

From up there she could see all the people below. Weiss, Neptune, Blake and Sun were down below having a good time, Penny was off in the corner doing the robot, and Ren and Nora were eating as many pastries as they could.

Well Nora was, Ren was taking some of them from her before she could gorge herself, and eating them himself. "Looks like everyone's happy." Yang said, hugging her sister.

After speaking with Yang for a few minutes, Ruby walked down to speak with Penny.

"Hello Ruby!" The girl spoke excitedly, and the two walked away from the security personnel Penny had been standing near,

"I haven't seen you for weeks! Where have you been?" Ruby asked, and Penny suddenly looked panicked,

"Um.." Ruby continued,

"Aren't we friends?" Penny held up her hands to stop Ruby's train of thought,

"Of course we are, it's just, well, I-I.." Ruby frowned,

"Penny..?" Penny looked to the ground, decorated exquisitely for the dance,

"I'm not real..."

Ruby stopped, and looked Penny over carefully, "so I really have gone insane..." She whispered to herself, and Penny looked up panicked,

"What? No! It's just, I, I'm the first artificially made machine capable of generating an aura. I'm real, I'm just not real." She hoped Ruby would understand, and the girl did. after thinking a moment, RUby looked Penny in the eye,

"Of course your real." Ruby placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, "you have an aura, so your real." Penny looked up at her friend,

"I, uh..." Ruby smiled,

"Don't let people tell you your not." The fifteen year old stated. Before looking outside, "I have to go though, it's getting a little stuffy in here."

Penny nodded and watched her friend leave the dance. Ruby walked outside in time to see a person dressed in all black and wearing a mask jump across a roof. Frowning, Ruby started to follow before she tripped over her heeled feet.

Groaning, she took off her shoes, growing up she used to run around barefoot across the back trails of Patch anyway, and put them behind a bush. She then ran after the mysterious woman. The girl found herself in front of the CCT tower, which was unguarded.i

Pit was unguarded because three men who were supposed to be guarding it were unconcious in small pools of blood. "Red like roses..." Ruby whispered to calm herself down, before typing in a combination on her scroll.

Her locker flew over and embedded itself into the pavement. It opened to reveal Crescent Rose. She grabbed it and ran into the building. More unconcious people more- "red like roses, it's just like roses..." Ruby stopped her own train of thought and continued towards the elevator.

"Just like roses, just like-" the elevator door opened, and two unconcious guards lay on the floor inside.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby chose to forgo the elevator and activated her semblance. Stairs it was. She went up the stairs quickly, but quietly, her scythe curved around behind her. She reached a floor to see the back of a woman, she was messing with the main computer, and all the others seemed to follow her command.

"Hey!" Ruby yelled, because saying stop was so cheesy. The woman stopped, and slowly turned around.

Panic began to rise in Ruby's chest, but like so many times before, she beat it back down. "This isn't a masquerade party." Ruby tried to stall with a conversation, as though someone might realize she was missing. Maybe Yang would. Or Ozpin.

Jaune was busy now.. Weiss and Blake were too, "so why don't you take off that-" the woman attacked. Glass foremed around her and flew towards the fifteen year old. Ruby blocked it by twirling her scythe and jumped forward to attack. She was easily knocked away by the woman.

All her aura depleted in that one over powered hit, leaving her at twelve percent. that almost never happened. usually it would even take Qrow doing something other then depleting her aura to knock ker out.

She flew backwards, her scythe leaving her hands and clattering to the floor behind her as she hit the ground. The woman smirked as Ruby tried to sit up. She walked towards the prone girl, and began to procure more glass.

The glass became solid and sharp, pointing towards Ruby's heart, the girl screeched in terror, then the elevator woman froze, before jumping up and through a portal and disappearing, glass and all.

The elevator doors opened, and General James Ironwood, headmaster of the school and military leader of Atlas, stepped off the elevator and through the door.

* * *

Ruby was released for Beacons infirmary after an hour of inspection, and was cleared to go on a mission the next day, as long as she didn't over exert herself. Her sister was frantic, and the moment Ruby was released from the infirmary, she crushed her sister in a hug.

That is, until the nurse told her to stop and to be careful with the girl's aura. Yang had nodded solemnly and gently hugged her sister. Only she heard the girl ask,

"Why does this always happen to me?"

Once she and her sister made it back to their dorm, Ruby jumped up onto her bed, and was asleep in seconds, recent insomnia be damned. Weiss peeked up at the sleeping girl, "will she be okay?" She asked quietly, it was late, and they needed to wake up early the next day. Yang sighed, letting her exaghstion over caring for her baby sister show for the first time since she was eight. "I don't know anymore." She whispered, and left the dorm room.

* * *

The morning of the mission assignments, Ruby was woken up by Yang, "Rubes, wake up, Dad sent us a package." Ruby sat up, and rubbed her eyes,

"A package?" Ruby asked jumping off her bed, only to lose ear footing. Looking at her scroll, Weiss saw that the girl's aura was hovering above thirty two percent. That was fast, usually, if aura was knocked below twenty percent, it took two days to reach thirty, then it would replenish normally.

Ruby however, was an anomaly, her aura was quick to replenish, and she had a lot of it to begin with. On the bright side, for at least a day, there would be no rose petals to sweep up. Ruby regained her footing and landed fairly sloppily.

Yang stood a few feet away from the girl, holding a cylindrical package. Weiss and Blake stood over by the open door, watching the scene before them in slight worry.

Ruby looked at the package, still half asleep, "What's in it?" She asked,

"Dunno," Yang answered and tipped the cylinder upsidown. When nothing happened, she shook the cylinder a little. A small cylinder, about a third the size of the package, fell out. Nothing happened for a few seconds, until an audible 'pop' noise was heard, and the smaller cylinder popped into the shape of a corgi, a very familiar corgi to the sister's-

"Zwei!"

Ruby yelled, causing Jaune and Nora to look out of their open door and into RWBY's room in curiosity. She held out her hands and the small dog jumped into her outstreached arms. Blake jumped up onto Ruby's unmade bed,

"Keep it away from me, and my things." She stated in as steady a voice as she could muster. Weiss seemed less then pleased,

"That, thing, is going to..stay..." Zwei looked up at her with what could only be described as pure love, "with... Us... Forever!"

Her entire tone changed and she hesitantly reached out to pet a dog for what she would later tell her friends was the first time, "Yes you wil! Yes you will!" She gushed, actually taking the dog from Ruby. Yang happened to look at the clock,

"We need to go soon, get dressed Rubes." Ruby chewed on her lip,

"What about Zwei?" She asked, watching Weiss snuggle with the corgi. Yang shook the canister again, piles upon piles of canned food fell out, then a can opener.

"Zwei'll be fine." TRuby assured her, throwing the canister to the other side of the room,

"How did your dad even fit all that stuff in there?"

"Semblance." Yang answered,

"Your father's semblance let's him do that?" Weiss spoke up. Yang smirked,

"No." Both Blake and Weiss stopped and looked down at Zwei, who barked.

* * *

Team RWBY walked into the autitorium, and Ruby wouldn't deny any lingering unease she felt about being back in the room. Her backpack shifted, and she quickly disguised the movement as her own.

After all, she didn't tell anyone about the corgi sleeping inside her backpack. Students from all four schools were there, and soon, an incredibly fast and boring speech from Ozpin was given.

Ruby looked at her team, "I want to leave the city." She spoke up, Weiss nodded,

"Me too." The last thing the group was expecting was Ozpin coming from around the mission board,

"I suggest Mountain Glen." He spoke up, sipping his coffee before realizing he had the girls' full attention,

"It seems there has been elevated Grimm activity there. And a few White Fang sightings." He sipped his coffee again before continuing,

"Ms. Rose, I would like to speak with you in my office in an hour. We must discus the events of last night." Ruby nodded,

"Yes sir." and with that, the man walked away. Ruby and her team looked at each other,

"All for Mountain Glen?" Ruby asked, and in practiced precision her team answered,

"Yes." An exited voice barely refrained from yelling,

"Sure." An indifferent voice spoke.

"Okay." A nervous and slightly interested voice answered. The answers went from Weiss, to Yang, to Blake, and Ruby signed them up for Mountain Glen. They would leave the next day.

* * *

Ruby walked to the CCTS Tower, Ozpin's office was at the top floor, and Ruby was stalling. The last time she had been in the tower, there was so much blood, but it all looked cleaned up now. Guards were standing at the doors, but they let her in. She walked to the elevator and looked at the top button.

Then she pressed every button. She only realized it was a stupid idea after she did it. So she waited as the elevator went up fifty plus floors, stopping at each and every one.

Finally the elevator doors opened on Ozpin's office, and standing inside was not only Ozpin, but Glynda Goodwitch, and James Ironwood himself. sje immidietly realized she was a few minutes late, due to her stupid button pressing idea.

"Uh sorry I'm late, someone pressed all the buttons on the way up here..." No answer was given, but the three people stared at her, "it wasn't me!" She insisted.

"Miss Rose, please come in." Ozpin beckoned her closer as he sat down at his desk. She started to walk forward, trying and for the most part failing, to beat down a bout of anxiety. Ironwood stopped her before she could make it to the desk, and she was perfectly fine with not moving from the spot she'd stopped in.

"Ruby, I believe you acted in the best way possible, like a true huntress." Ruby looked down at the ground, she was horrible at taking compliments,

"Thank you, sir." She boarder line whispered.

"Ruby," Glynda aprached her student as she would a young child, or a scared animal, "can you tell us anything about the woman in the tower last night?"

Ruby looked at the woman, studying her expresion, before answering, "she fought with glass, but it wasn't her semblance." Glynda nodded,

"Did she say anything to you?" Ruby shook her head. "What did she look like?" The woman asked, taking a step forward, Ruby thought for a moment,

"She wore a mask, and all black, she had golden eyes though..." The tension in the air increased, but Ruby had no idea why, and she doubted she ever would. Maybe one day...

Glynda frowned, as though deep in though, and Ozpin thanked her before dismissing her. Before she left however, Ozpin wished her luck on her next mission.


	6. The One About Mountain Glen

A/N: This chapter used to be made up of chapters 22-25. Enjoy!

* * *

RWBY

No one said a word as they watched the man flit around the bullhead, the four girls just stood in shock. They didn't even know what he was doing, as a only Ruby could actually see his movements, and she was just as confused. However she did try her best to snap her team out of their unintentional stupor,

"So I guess we're going to save the world with Doctor Ooblek..." She stopped as though hearing her words for the first time, "Yea... no, now it seems worse..."

Weiss' shoulders slumped, "you're telling me." She muttered her eyes trying, and failing, to follow the teacher that would lead them into the world of the Grimm.

"Save the world!?" Nora approached with her team, and while Ren and Pyrrah stared at the teacher who appeared to be almost teleporting around the airship. Jaune smiled,

"Sounds like fun!" But Blake just stared at the airship, Ooblek had disappeared. Pyrrah tore her eyes away from the ship,

"Where are you guys going?" She questioned her friends. Yang, hands on her hips, answered,

"Oh, just outside the kingdom for a few days."

"Ooooooo! Cool!" Nora practically jumped in exitement, Ren placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her in place as she turned to eye the airship, out of which the Doctor appeared,

"Two more minutes ladies!" Before ducking back into the hull just as Sun and Neptune walked over.

"Two minutes till what?" Sun asked, to that, Blake actually spoke up, "we're going to Mountain Glen."

"One more minute ladies!" Everyone flinched, and Neptune whispered,

"But it's only been thirty seconds..." causing Nora to giggle.

"We should probably go." Ruby muttered, shifting the bag she had on her shoulder, even though the Doctor had told them to leave them at Beacon, and looked towards the ship.

"Yea." Yang agreed, going to place a hand on Ruby's shoulder as the younger turned, She pulled away though, as the girl was already walking away. Yang shrugged and followed her team, waving to her friends as she walked away. Blake and Weiss followed, waving as well.

The last thing they heard before boarding the airship was Nora screaming

"Bye!" At the top of her lungs.

* * *

It was loud. Really, really loud. The wind whipped by, causing the team to have to yell in order to converse with their profes-Doctor, teacher. "So why are you coming with us!?" Yang yelled above the wind, even though she was standing right next to the teacher. he looked down at her and smiled,

"Ozpin has requested that I accompany you on your... Expidition. Searching the land for any irregularities that appear to be... Irregular." He too, yelled above the wind.

"irregularities!?" Weiss yelled from the teacher's other side, he looked at her as well,

"Any thing that history of the area would prove the item to not be... Historical." She gave him a funny look, and Yang jumped back in,

"I never really pictured you as much of a fighter!" The man seemed to chuckle, "I'll have you know I've had my share of tussles!"

Ruby, standing in between Yang and Blake muttered in confusion, "Like the clam?" Only the girls standing next to her could hear though,

"Those are mussels." Yang told her. The young girl tried again,

"The plant?" Blake leaned down so Ruby could hear her,

"Those are Brussels." Ruby stopped asking and seemed to be thinking.

Meanwhile, their quick trip to Mountain Glen was coming to an end, "Well ladies, it appears to be time for us to depart." With that, the man had disapeared, and the team looked down to where the man had jumped out of the lofty airship.

"He's serious?" Weiss asked, only for Ruby to smile,

"Wheeeee!" She was plummeting to the ground as well.

"She's serious!?" Weiss practically screeched. Yang smiled and jumped also, Blake following behind. Weiss looked down, at the ground.

Her father had always said to never to jump out of a perfectly good airship. Her father was an overbearing buffoon. Weiss jumped, following her team to the kground.

The group landed with near perfect precision, the only problem was Ruby. Instead of landing on the ground, she hit a lone beowolf, and had to kill it before touching ground.

"Having a little trouble, Rubes?" Yang called quizzaciously, a small smile on her face. Ruby laughed,

"Nope." Even Ooblek seemed amused, but he didn't note on it, his face suddenly becoming serious,

"Well ladies, you are officially in hostile territory now. Be sure to listen to every word I say, as well as watch for things that could be... hostile."

He looked at Ruby and frowned, "Miss Rose, did I not tell you to leave your bag at home?" Ruby flinched, but stood her ground, she would forever deny the fact that she didn't really like to be around people anymore, a successful reversion to her old ways,

"You didn't say to listen to you yet... So I didn't..."

Ooblek sighed and muttered, "She's not wrong..." Before looking back to her, "very well, what pretell, is in the bag?"

Ruby looked panicked for a moment, "Uhh..." Then the back of the bag popped open.

A bark was heard. Other then that, utter silence. "You mean to tell me..." Ooblek tried to find his words, his voice filled with disbelief, "you took a dog, into a war zone?" Ruby didn't answer, but the last thing she guessed would happen was her teacher yelling, "Brilliant!" And rushing towards her.

He grabbed Zwei out of the bag, nocking Ruby off balance in the process, and twirled around in circles with the small animal, "Dogs have a superior sense of hearing as well as smell, a valuable addition to a hunt such as ours!" Ruby picked herself off the ground,

"Well... He's excitable..." She whispered to Weiss, who nodded in agreement. The man then put down the dog and bent down to inspect a plant growing out of the decade old cement.

The girls looked at each other in confusion before separating and walking a small ways away to explore a little. Ruby and Zwei stood in front of what the girl gathered to be an old fast food restraunt, letters that once hung above the door were now scattered on the ground below.

The door itself was missing, and the paint had worn away. Nearly ten years of neglect and the onslaught of Grimm had worn away any sign of habitation the city once had.

It wasn't very long before Grimm began to become aware of the presence of the girls and their teacher. The onslaught seemed almost planned, a group of Grimm every few minutes, slowly wearing them down over the course of the day.

Ruby could hear Ooblek questioning her teammate's about their reasons for becoming huntresses. The reaper didn't need to know their reasons, the fact of the matter was, they were there, and if they needed her help with their goals, she would do her best.

She didn't even try to hear their answers, always moving out of earshot before they could say anything, Zwei following behind. The Grimm were wearing down her team, she could tell.

The creatures of darkness seemed to stay away from her for the most part though, only the younger Grimm would lunge for her, and she took them out easily. It was getting kind of boring. She was beginning to wonder if the Grimm were scared of her or something.

So she began to pick off Grimm that were attacking her teammate's in groups larger then four, any less, and she knew they could handle it in seconds. The sun began to set on the first day they would spend in Mountain Glen.

Ooblek began to devise a plan. He called the members of team RWBY together and told the older girls to go set up camp high in the skyscraper they were standing next to. Zwei followed the girls up and into the building leaving Ruby and her teacher in the desolate street. Almost without a single word, Ooblek lead Ruby towards a cliff, "Um Doctor Ooblek..?"

"Wondering why I've been interrogating your team all day?" Ooblek seemed to be looking for something, but for the life of Ruby, she couldn't figure out what. Either way, she decided not to lie,

"It did cross my mind..." She didn't really care though, just curiosity, after all, wasn't that a thing that made her human?

She was surprised when that was the answer she was given, "Curiosity." Ooblek continued looking over the cliff, Ruby however, was looking at him, that curiosity that made her human coming out in full force, "I want to learn all that I can." The man continued, and Ruby gave in to her curiosity,

"Well, why did you become a huntsman?" She asked, and the man smiled.

"Curiosity. I want to learn all that I can, about anything and everything. I want to learn, and place the knowledge I've collected into the minds of young people, young people who can use it in ways I can only dream of. One day, maybe something I tell a student might inspire them to do something great, find a way to dissect Grimm, learn the truth of what happened in the times before dust. Maybe I might inspire someone to destroy the very thing that Grimm come from, and banish them from the planet. With knowledge, I can be useful in more ways then just fighting, I can help and keep us from repeating the same mistakes, all by giving what I've obtained to young children, the very children who will one day be in charge of the world, and in charge of the next young people, I can add my knowledge to the pool of eternity."

He was watching the sun set over the trees, far below them, and Ruby couldn't figure out what to say to that.

She looked out over the trees, spanning for miles below her, marveling on just how much her little world had grown since she had first come to beacon. Then movement caught her eye, deep within her, a sense of purpose flowed out into her veins.

She wanted nothing more then to kill those huge creatures towering above the trees. Only Ooblek noticed the flash of light emitted from her silver eyes before she asked, "what are those?" He looked down at the humongous creatures of destruction,

"Those, Ruby, are Grimm." He and Ruby watched the huge creatures, crushing trees beneath their feet as though they were nothing more then tiny sprouts.

"The Goliath." He continued, watching Ruby for any more signs of her secret heritage as she stared down at the Grimm, an unreadable expression on her face, "they are probably thousands of years old." Ruby already had her weapon in hand,

"Let's kill them." She stated, looking down at them and ready to give in to her insatiable need to kill.

Her silver eyes flashed again, and Ooblek came to the realization that she had no idea they were even emitting light. He smiled at her drive though, "oh dear, I don't think your weapon would do much on that Grimm, you see, they're thousands of years old. In that time they've not only gained strength and size as well as armor, they've learned. Learned to stay away from people, or they will die. A self preservation of sorts."

Ruby looked down at the huge creatures trampling the earth below them, "Why are they so close to Vale then?" She asked, watching as the herd turned to continue following the wall that stretched outwards, barring off Vale from the rest of the world.

"They're waiting. Watching for signs of weakness, heavily negative emotions, times good for attack. Every day, our tiny kingdom is in danger of destruction, the only thing stopping it, are the Grimm themselves."

Ruby watched the gigantic creatures for a few more seconds, "That's kinda scary." Ooblek watched them as well, not missing yet another flash of silver before Ruby finally folded her weapon and put it back onto her belt.

The sun had set, and the air had become startlingly chilly, he found himself amused yet again by Ruby when the fifteen year old shivered. "Come, let us see what your team has been up to." Ruby didn't argue, just followed the older huntsman away from the cliff and towards the building.

High up near the top of the skyscraper, they could see a small light burning. A tiny beacon of light in the otherwise dark world the small girl had found herself in.

* * *

"Ah! A textbook fire!" Ooblek's voice rang out, he seemed delighted, and Ruby rushed forward and held her ice cold hands to the flame,

"so warm!" She whispered as she let herself relax in front of the flickering light.

Ooblek seemed to be on a mission, and called, "Who wants to have first watch?"

Ruby figured she wouldn't sleep much with her onset of insomnia anyways so she raised her hand, "Yo." She called, and stood up to go find a lookout post.

It was dark, but the stars and full moon gave enough light for Ruby to easily find Grimm, lone and in packs, in her scope. She was thankful for the silencer she'd attached to Crescent Rose before leaving Beacon. Every time her scope found a lone Grimm, her weapon fired, perfectly silent, into the night, hitting, and killing, it's intended target. Her kill count for that shift quickly climbed into thirty. Then forty. Then fifty. She watched the moon move slowly through the sky.

Soon it was high above her head. That was when she was tapped on the shoulder by Yang. He sister looked down at her, meeting the girl's silver eyes with her own lilac ones, "Go get some sleep Rubes." She whispered, pulling the girl away from the ruins of a balcony she'd been crouched on.

Ruby groaned, but complied. There she lay, on a sleeping bag her sister had occupied, Ruby knew she hadn't slept in over twenty four hours, but she still wasn't tired. Even if she was, she wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. Her mind wouldn't let her.

It was a welcome escape when Zwei got up off the sleeping bag where he was laying, curled up against her stomach, "Zwei!" She yelled in a whisper voice, jumping into a crouching stance, she was about to run after her beloved pet when a voice stopped her,

"Where are you going?" It was Weiss, the pale girl was awake,

"Zwei, he ran-"

"So you're just going to go alone?" Weiss had stood up and was looking down at Ruby, "Well?" Ruby didn't answer, so Weiss held out her hand, "Come on." Ruby took it, and let the older girl pull her to her feet, "let's go find Zwei." The heiress told the reaper, the younger nodded, and the two girls ran after their beloved dog.

It was quiet in the abandoned city, and the girls immidietly found Zwei, across the empty street peeing on an upright metal beam. Weiss huffed in disgust, but Ruby ran towards her pet, "Zwei, this is a wastland, you literally could've done that anywhere."

She scooped up her pet, who barked in greeting. But as Weiss joined the two, an unknown voice yelled from the distance, causing the three to freeze in terror, "hey, what was that?" It yelled from just around the corner.

Weiss and Ruby looked at each other and ran to peer around the corner. Standing with their backs to the girls were two men, dressed in White Fang uniforms, and Grimm masks covering their human features and accenting their animal like ones. The girls looked at each other, speech being to dangerous with Faunus in the vincinity. They had found their desired targets, now to follow them back to the base. Ruby and Weiss ran from cover to cover, Ruby using her semblance to speed the two along.

they stopped at another corner the two men had rounded, and Ruby held Zwei up to look around it, "did they go inside? One bark means yes." Weiss stared at the girl in disbelief, a dog couldn't really understand human language, could it?

Zwei barked once, and Ruby looked around the corner, she looked back at Weiss, "This is it!" She whisper yelled, putting Zwei down and moving to jump for joy in the middle of the pathway, Weiss, a ways behind her stared at the dog in question, did that mean it knew that she had called it names when she'd first seen it?

She chose not to think about it. A rumble in the ground below them startled Weiss out of her thoughts. Zwei barked a few times again as Ruby stood, frozen in place, her dancing stopped a while ago. Before Weiss' very eyes, the ground opened up, as if someone decided they wanted to break the crust of the earth.

Ruby's weapon dislodged from her belt, clattering to the ground and she struggled to regain her footing as the ground below her caved inwards.

She lost the battle and tumbled into the abyss, her weapon resting on the edge of the hole, Zwei standing near it, one paw on it to keep it from falling. He barked at the hole his owner had disapeared into, Weiss stared in horror.

Until the dog snapped her out of it. She picked up Crescent Rose, and ran back towards the campsite, she had to get help.

* * *

The first thing Ruby registered in her lethargic mind was that it was dark. Really dark. And quiet, really quiet too. She sat up and rubbed her head, it was pitch dark, and it occurred to her to use her scroll for light.

She pulled the modern devise out of her pocket and turned on the built in flashlight. A small beam of light lit up Ruby's vision, allowing her to see that she was on top of a massive, underground, metal structure.

Her light only gave her about a foot of visibility though, and Ruby still found herself stumbling blindly along the metal structure.

Until she reached a huge drop. She held the flashlight up and looked down. The light of her scroll blocked out the silver flash in her eyes as fear worked its way into her system. Something bad had happened, again. Suddenly the sound of a heavy door opening reached her ears, as well as a beam of intensely bright light.

It blinded her, and she took a step towards the massive drop off. "What are you doing here?" A gruff voice yelled, but Ruby was blinded by the light, she couldn't see anything.

She knew though, when a strong hand grabbed her wrist, that she was in trouble, again. "Hands off!" She yelled pulling her hand out of the masked man's grasp. Masked man? Oh great. White Fang.

Leave it to Ruby to drop right on top of what ever plan they were hatching. Emphasis on, 'on top.'

She freed her hand, only to be shoved into the ground. She never was any good at hand to hand combat.

She could hear the man's mocking laugh, but she wasn't expecting a smack to her head, bypassing her aura and knocking her unconscious.

* * *

Banging sounds. They were loud, but far away. Ruby came too, leaning against a wall, inside a room. It was huge, not multipurpose room huge, but pretty big anyway. Maybe a little bigger then dorm room huge. Ruby had to admit though, it was nice getting some sleep.

She tried to move her hands to rub her eyes, but couldn't. Frantically she tried to move her hands, her eyes popping open and her breathing stopping out of fear. She couldn't move them, her hands were tied behind her back. Ruby could feel a panic attack rising. She could also hear talking though, and she moved her eyes towards the sounds, focusing on them over the banging sounds, and her panic.

"Hey, boss" a masked man was speaking, "We brought you something." Ruby gathered from that statement that she hadn't been there very long. A familiar voice spoke then, and Ruby's panic attack worsened.

"I can see that." Roman Torchwick answered, annoyance wrought in his voice, "What I asked was, where were you?" The White Fang operative seemed at a loss,

"On top of a skyscraper..." The redheaded man groaned,

"So it was reasonable to assume, if you'd left her there, with no interference, she never would've found us?"

"Yes... Sir..." The younger man, seemed a bit put off by Roman's attitude towards the whole thing, but Torchwick only sighed,

"Oh well." He muttered and walked towards Ruby, the other man shrugged and hurried away. Ruby narrowed her eyes. She wouldn't show him fear, she wouldn't show anyone fear this time. Even if that was most of what she was feeling.

"Hello Red, isn't it late? Do you always have to try to thwart my plans during untimely hours?" Ruby didn't say a word as the older man untied her hands. But she didn't stand up either,

"Playing the silent game are you, Red?" He asked, leaning on his cane. Ruby just frowned.

"Seriously though, did you just fall down a magically appearing hole in perfectly good as-fault, or did you follow someone?" Ruby decided to tell the truth by being a smart ass, and for the record, she did follow someone, but the as-fault could not be described as perfectly good.

No where near it in fact. "both." The girl answered, and Roman's eyes glittered with annoyance,

"You really are a strange one, aren't you, Red." Ruby chose to go back to silence.

She did look towards the door, on the complete opposite side of the room. Roman saw her eyes move, and smiled. "You know, most people would've made a break for the door by now, why not you?" Roman asked, but again, the girl didn't answer, Roman began to therorize to himself, watching her facial expression for clues,

"Perhaps you're tired from a night of running around an abandoned city." Ruby's expression told him that might just be part of it, "or maybe you just don't care." Nope, the girl showed no change in expression, exept maybe annoyance,

"Or maybe, you know it's futile." Ruby's eyes widened for a moment before returning to their frown. That was all Roman needed,

"Well Red, this has been an interesting talk, I hope to speak more at a, different time." He moved towards her, but Ruby was up and running in a second. However, having been nocked out had lowered her aura significantly, and her semblance didn't kick in, Roman simply lifted his cane and shot the handle part at her.

It doubled as a hook and attached itself to her hood, yanking the girl off her feet and onto the ground. Ruby yelped from the rough landing, her aura not protecting her, before being dragged back towards the theif.

She closed her eyes slightly from the unpleasantness of the ride, but opened them once it stopped, and stared up into Roman's eyes. The man seemed unnerved by the look on her face though, and wouldn't meet her eyes, opting to instead hide behind his mouth. He bent down with the rope he'd discarded earlier,

"You know Red, you're an enigma. No matter how many times you get crushed, you keep coming back. It's infuriating." He finished tying her hands behind her back and stood back up, leaving her cross legged on the ground,

"Later Red!" He yelled over his shoulder as he turned to leave the room, closing the door behind him.

Not even twenty seconds after the man had left, and Ruby was already working at the rope, within a minute, the rope was laying on the ground, unused, and the ends frayed. She ran towards the door. This guy was an idiot when holding captives, the door was unlocked.

She opened it and ran. Right past the guards, and unfortunately down a oneway hallway. The room she'd been in had been at the end of it.

This meant she had to go past Torchwick. She didn't even make it more than twelve feet. Her semblance still wouldn't kick in. And her aura was barely even replenishing, no rose petals littered the ground in her panic, it was unnaturally petal-free.

That blasted hook shot towards her, again, and caught her by the hood, again. Groaning inwardly, she closed one eye at the discomfort of being dragged across a wooden floor covered in dirt and splinters.

They made it back to that stupid room. Ruby was beyond infuriated by that point, as she opened her eyes from where she lay on the ground near the back wall of the room, again. "You know Red, this is getting kind of annoying." Roman muttered, taking a long nail off the ground, from where it had fallen from the rafters, and bending it into a hook almost effortlessly.

He ran a new, longer piece of rope through it in seconds, before closing the nail into a loop and jamming it into the wall. Once he was sure it wouldn't move, he tied Ruby's hands, again, this time much more intricately and with tighter knots, with the rope, leaving the girl with only enough room to go about two feet away from sitting position against the wall.

"That should hold ya." Roman stated, proud of his handiwork. Before turning and leaving through the door, the reaper could hear it lock from where she sat. Groaning, she got to work dealing with her panic attack. Once that was settled, she realized there was something really wrong, her semblance wasn't working. The feeling of metal around her ankle settled it for her. She looked down. It was what they used in jails to suppress semblances, an aura interference devise.

Imbued with a special type of rock, the metal clasp holds the rock in place, on top of the skin, keeping the person it comes in contact with from being able to use their aura. It required another person with an unlocked aura to take off the band, and even then, the person had to know how to do it. That was useless, so she did the next best thing. She tried the ropes. Nope, she wasn't going anywhere. Not that she wouldn't stop trying.

* * *

"What do you mean, 'Ruby fell down there!?'" Yang practically yelled after Weiss had lead them to the hole. Ooblek was strangely quiet, he appeared to be thinking.

"Of course... Of course, of course, OF COURSE! How could I be so stupid!?" He suddenly yelled, scaring the girls half to death.

"What are you talking about?" Yang asked, a bit of fear rising in the pit of her stomach, the doctor however, seemed to be in his little information world again,

"Mountain Glen, known for its tall cliffs and deep caves." Blake's eyes widened and she looked down into what she remembered now to be the subway system as well as her old home for about a year.

"The underground city." She whispered, oblivious to the fact that Ooblek was talking directly to Zwei.

"Yes!" The man was suddenly in front of her, rambling about the history of Mountain Glen, history Blake had lived through. She tuned in, just in time to hear him say,

"If Ruby is down there, we must find her." He finished his stern no nonsense sentence with a scarily upbeat one,

"Come on ladies!" He then jumped down into the abyss with almost no warning. Yang stared down at him before jumping down as well, Weiss following. Blake took a deep breath before jumping down as well.

Only Blake and Zwei could see in the darkness, but Ooblek was quick to take out a large flashlight. The top of an underground skyscraper lit up in the darkness, and Blake inwardly shuttered. Ooblek was already on the move, walking towards a door that would lead them down to the lower levels of the cave.

The girls were quick to follow. They had to walk down level after level of stairs. It took about half an hour, even at the quick pace the group was traveling. Soon enough though, they reached the ground level, or at least the underground equivalent of a ground level.

That was when faint banging sounds could be heard. The girls looked at each other, apprehension clear on their faces, before continuing onto find their missing leader. They rounded a corner, and Weiss thought on the fact that she had been doing that a lot lately.

However, the moment they walked around the angled wall, they were disoriented by the massive amount of people running around the supposedly abandoned city.

Faunus in White Fang uniforms ran to and fro, and the group was at a loss as too what to do. Yang looked at their escort,

"Uh Doc. What do we do now?" The man rubbed his chin absently, obviously thinking, his eyes suddenly lit up and he walked out into sight of the group of people,

"Hello folks, it appears we're missing a teammate, would you know what happened to a little girl in a red hood?"

* * *

Ruby sat against the wall, proud of herself for fighting off a panic attack. She was still nervous though. She stared at the door, wondering what would happen if it opened. She almost jumped out of her skin when it did open.

It didn't help that Roman Torchwik walked through the door. She glared at the man, "What now?" she asked, sounding annoyed, her façade wasn't foolproof though.

Roman smiled, and Ruby frowned, the man then spoke, "You know Red, your actually helping us, you're pushing our cause forward right now." He laughed before continuing,

"So Red, when we personally bring the Grimm into Vale, I'll have you to thank." The girl scowled, but chose to try to get information from the narcissistic theif,

"Oh, how are you going to do that?" She asked, letting doubt seep into her facial expression and voice.

If possible, Roman's smile grew, "Subterranean Grimm. Bombs, explosives and the like. You know how it goes." Roman waved a hand as though setting off explosives to lead Grimm into a city filled with millions of people was just a normal thing he did every Saturday.

Ruby glared at him, but other then that, there wasn't much she could do but watch as Roman waved in a mocking manner before leaving, the lock clicking into place after the door closed.

* * *

The members of the White Fang stood there, staring at the group of people. They stared, speechlessly standing in their places, not knowing what to do until... "Attack!" Insanity broke out. The mislead Faunus attacked the group of children and their teacher, and the girls began to fight back almost immidietly.

Even Ooblek unfolded a canteen like bottle he'd been sipping a liquid from the whole time into a large weapon.

"Find Ruby!" The doctor yelled, dispatching multiple enemies in one swing. The girls looked at each other before splitting up. Weiss ran towards what looked like an old hotel, Blake ran into what she remembered to be a popular shopping mall, and Yang ran towards what she thought looked like an old apartment complex.

Blake ran into the mall, trying not to remember walking around with her parents, her baby brother.

She looked up the empty and broken escalators at the second level. And the third, and the fourth. The fifth floor was an apartment floor of sorts, people who lived there owned stores in the mall. She figured she should try there. But first, the lower level.

The basement, the storage area. She ran towards the stairwell. Down she went, into the lower level, already detoured by the fact that this floor was almost entirely empty, save for some storage boxes.

She opened the door separating the rest of the building from the storage area, and found nothing. Room after room, door after door, only abandoned boxes. Singing she closed the last door, it only felt right to leave things as she found them, an homage to the past, a life she, and thousands of others, could never return to.

* * *

Yang ran into what she recognized to be a lobby. A mail sorter hung on the wall behind the front desk, names still legible below each cubby. If she had stopped to read them, she would've recognized the name Belladonna.

But alas, she didn't even spare the room a glance as she ran to open every door ahe could find. Nothing. She did however, note that there was almost twenty floors. She was going to have to check them all.

Better get started. She ran up the stairs, the elevator wouldn't have worked even if it didn't look like it was about to disintegrate. She began her lengthy search through what appeared to be people's homes.

They were left as though people were just leaving for a few minutes. Children's toys, household appliances, paintings, cloths, family pictures. She never expected to find a photo of a family with a little girl who looked like a younger version of Blake, cat ears and all.

A baby boy with silver cat ears matching his hair in his mother's arms, her cat ears being the same silvery color as her hair. The man who had his hands on the girl's shoulders had the same hair color as the girl, but he lacked any Faunus trait what so ever.

His eye shape gave it away, he was human. She took the photo to show to Blake later, maybe they were relatives, cousins of hers. Before she continued her fast paced search.

* * *

Weiss ran into a hotel that she hoped to God was once in better condition then it was now. It looked so worn down. Was that a one of a kind Mote Zarte painting? Mote was one of her favorite painters, and she recognized his style, just not the painting.

Weiss shook her head, now wasn't the time. She ran to look through all the rooms on the first level of two.

When she reached the second level, her heart stopped. So many different people's things. Some of the items were valuable, just left behind in the owner's haste to escape the doomed city with their lives.

She forced herself to keep going to look for Ruby. But soon she had searched every room, and had found nothing. What should she do now?

Go help Yang. The thought was a simple one, Yang had rushed off towards a tall apartment complex, she'd need help searching the whole thing. But to get there, she'd have to pass back through where Ooblek had been fighting the White Fang soldiers.

Maybe she should help her teacher. Decision made, Weiss rushed to go help Ooblek, then maybe the two of them could go help Yang. The more people searching that huge complex, the better. She left the creepy building behind and ran to find Ooblek.

* * *

Blake ran through the first floor of the shopping mall. It was empty, deserted. It was like looking into a twisted and broken version of her past, and in a way, that's exactly what she was doing.

This floor was empty, so she dashed up the broken escalator and onto the second floor. Empty as well. So far about an hour had passed. In the Faunus girl's mind, she was making good time. She bolted up to the third floor. She spotted some white fang soldiers before they spotted her.

Quickly she dodged into an abandoned store, hiding from the soldiers in record time. The huntress in training waited a bit before creeping out. White fang in the vicinity meant something important was here. She ran through the rest of the floor, but found nothing.

But the escalator to the fourth floor was way to open, those White Fang members could still be around somewhere. So she took the stairwell. She made it to the fourth floor a little slower then she'd made it to the others, but it didn't matter, because she needed her stealth.

* * *

Weiss had found Ooblek, and with his teleportation-like speed, they had helped Yang clear the building in a mere hour. So the three had run towards the rundown mall, Ooblek noting the oddity of a train parked on the empty and blocked off tracks, noting that it could have been left in the evacuation of the civilians. Not that there was any record of it.

The group made it to the mall in minutes and began to look for Blake as well as Ruby. Running up the stairs when they stopped short and looked at each other when they heard a crash and a lot of yelling.

* * *

Ruby was sitting quietly on the ground in the stupid room, despite her initial panic, the girl had grown uncomfortable, and very, very bored. But when she heard a distant, muffled crash and yelling, she grew aprehensive, straining at the rope holding her in place.

What was going on? Roman ran into the room and shut the door. When he turned to look at her and noted her confused stare, he muttered, "shut up and stay quiet." Before leaning on the door. Ruby frowned but didn't say anything, it wasn't really worth it right now. Plus he did have that stupid cane in his hand.

* * *

Blake had startled some white fang soldiers, and as she had fought them, a glass display window had shattered from the impact of a defeated member of the White Fang. She didn't even really understand why the man was there, she had searched the floor and the one above it, and found nothing.

Anyone who didn't grow up in the lost city wouldn't know about the secret passageways built throughout the city, all of them connecting, so she didn't bother looking for an entrance to the secret of the lost world. She didn't know where the one in the mall was anyway.

She was on her way back down when the soldiers had spotted her. Her fight had only gone on for a few minutes before the remainder of her team, as well as Ooblek, joined her, seemingly out of nowhere.

Together the group easily fought off the people attacking them. "Well, that was a thing." Yang spoke up after they'd defeated all the soldiers, Weiss nodded in agreement. "Blake, did you find anything in this building?" Ooblek asked, and when the girl shook her head, he sighed, "time to go check the other buildings..."

* * *

Roman appeared to be listening through the door, after a few minutes, he disapeared and didn't come back. Minutes later, after Torchwick's disappearance, some White Fang soldiers came into the room. There was about three of them, and none of them said a word.

The strongest of the men had difficulty yanking the distorted nail out of the wall, but had an easier time removing the rope from it. Using the two feet of free rope, he yanked and unsuspecting Ruby to her feet, painfully.

Ruby yelped as she was forced into a standing position as her hands her yanked upwards from behind. The man, surrounded by what she assumed were his subordinates, only said a few words to her,

"Get moving." One of the soldiers walked ahead, two behind, one, the leader of the small group, held onto the now free end of the rope that held the fifteen year old. Where they were going, Ruby could only hazard a guess.

They walked down the corridor that Ruby had previously tried to escape down, and through multiple doors. Soon they reached very steep, very narrow stairs, and something about the setting clicked for Ruby. It looked like they were inside the walls of the city.

Ruby inwardly groaned. A few minutes later, one of the men ran ahead and opened a door slightly, he looked around before opening it all the way, "All clear, let's hurry." The group exited the tunnels and found themselves in an underground train station.

A subway. The word seemed really unfamiliar to Ruby, but she remembered learning that Atlas had a lot of them, most people who lived there would use the subway instead of cars. Ruby tore herself back to the present as she was roughly shoved into the engine of the train.

They shoved her to the ground in the corner of the tiny room, all while the rest of the crew could be seen getting the train ready to start. Ruby groaned, this absolutely could not end well.

* * *

The group was running across an open area between some buildings and the train station. The White Fang had been quick to clear out, some of the soldiers yelling at others to get to the train. They arrived at the caboose just as it began to move,

"We should get on that train." Blake muttered. Weiss stared at the girl in shock.

"But, what about Ruby?" She glared at Blake, was this girl assuming Ruby wasn't in any of the hundreds of other buildings here? Yang balled her hands into fists, it hurt saying it, but it needed to be said.

"The White Fang probably found her, she might be on the train, if not, we'll come back, and find her." Yang spoke with authority Ruby could only dream of having, and Ooblek nodded, "Good choice ladies, now, if you all could, we do need to catch that train." The group looked at the train, it was traveling away fast, and still picking up speed.

"Let's go!" Weiss yelled, and below the people getting ready to chase down a train, glyphs appeared. What happened next, only Weiss knew. The group found themselves flying through the air, and landing with thuds on the roof of the caboose.

"What.. Did you, do?" Yang asked, picking herself up and glaring at Weiss, who had landed gracefully on her feet.

Weiss shrugged, "Got us onto the train." She was cutt off from a longer retort by Blake, who was already running towards the middle of the top of the train car.

"No time, we need to get inside this thing!" She lifted the hatch, then stopped. Ooblek walked over to her,

"What is it?" He asked before looking down into the train car. What he saw, shocked him. Weiss looked down into it too,

"What, is that?" She asked, to which Ooblek answered,

"That, appears to be a bomb."

"What!?" Yang yelled, running over to see as well. Ooblek thought fast, "quick! every one, get to the next car!" The bomb made a beeping noise and some lights on the side turned on, "and detach the caboose!" He added before following the girls to the roof of the next car. Blake jumped down to detach the train car, only for it to decouple.

In her confusion, she stared dumbfounded for a moment before returning to the roof,

"It decoupled itself!" She told the group once she landed on the tin roof.

"What!?" Ooblek yelled in surprise, and turned to watch the train car drift away.

Once it was about forty feet away, it exploded. And a hole erupted in the roof of the tunnel. Early morning sunlight drifted in, most likely the first sunlight the tunnel had ever seen. The group didn't dwell on it though, Weiss had already lifted up the hatch of the train car they were now on.

"Hey," the white clad girl called, "There's another bomb here!"

Ooblek frowned, "get to the next car!" He yelled. And the girls were quick to heed his command. Ooblek came to a sudden realization, "the cars... They detach and explode..." His head shot up from where he was looking down in thought, "they create openings for the Grimm! they're leading grimm into the city!"

The girls stared at him in horror, Weiss voiced it, "What!?" The man didn't answer, just jumped to another car. After two more explosions, they finally reached cars without bombs, but instead, there where White Fang soldiers creeping along the roofs of the train cars, towards them.

"Go down into the cars." The man instructed,

"I'll take care of everything up here." The girls gave a firm nod before jumping down the open hatch and into the train car below. Before jumping, Yang let go of the bundle of corgi she had picked up shortly before being sent flying onto a train by Weiss. The corgi opted to stay with Ooblek. In the back of Yang's mind, she wondered if the two had met before.

"Well, I guess this is what we trained for." Yang made a nervous pun, and Blake have her an annoyed look. Yang held up her hands in surrender before the three girls began to run through the train car.

It was empty exept for some dust cases filled with vials and crystals as well as cartridges of dust, Weiss picked up a few of them with an angry expulsion of air, and stuffed them into her bag. The group was about to continue on, but Weiss held up a cartridge perfectly fit for Blake's weapon,

"Here. It should help." Blake took the cartridge and loaded it into Gambol Shroud before following after her two friends.

They exited the empty train car and jumped across to another. Yang dragged the door open, and the girls walked through it, the brawler letting the door smash closed with a loud bang. The multicolored girl was standing there, leaning on her umbrella.

The last any of them had seen of her was aiding in Roman Torchwick's escape from the girls underneath the freeways. Yet here she stood, silent as she had been that night, staring at the girls with a cocky expression.

Yang loaded Ember Cecilia, "Go on ahead." She stated, voice low and menacing, "This one's mine." White and Black looked at each other, and nodded. Yang stood, weight centered low in a horse stance, hands held up in a boxer's stance.

Carefully and slowly, the girl aimed. The multicolored girl smiled, and blinked, shocking the three girls there when her eyes switched colors. There wasn't time to dwell on it though, because with speed rivaling Ruby's, Yang shot twice at the small umbrella wielder. The very moment she did so, Weiss and Blake ran forward, bypassing the girl entirely and running through the automated doors.

The two girls came upon the next room, and it looked much like the last. Exept a burly and strong looking Faunus with a chainsaw stood at the end. Weiss and Blake looked at each other, and after a second, Blake nodded. The two ran forwards, Weiss clashed head on, Blake clashed from the side, blocking his hits before leaving a shadow clone, and jumping away. The moment the clone was hit, it disapeared, but Blake was already gone, the automatic door closing behind her.

Blake ran into the next train car, and by her calculations, this was the last one before the engine. Standing in front of her was the red-headed menace, Roman Torchwick himself. "Hello kitty cat, I'd ask what you're doing here, but it's pretty obvious."

Blake scoffed at his words before lunging forward, Gambol shroud at the ready. Roman was ready as well, and thrust his weapon towards her. He found his trusty cane encased in a thick Blake shaped rock.

Scowling and growling in anger, Roman easily shattered the rock, but Blake was already coming in for another hit. He just barely blocked, and when he expected her to be trapped by the block, he found himself stumbling after his cane flew through a Blake shaped area of high density gravity.

He just barely regained his footing in time to make a jab for Blake again, but his weapon became entirely incased in a Blake shaped statue of ice, just out of his reach as he lost his barely withstood balance and fell to the ground.

Blake was quick to incapacitate him, and over all, it was a quick fight, Blake hadn't said a word, and now, she stood, one foot on his chest, staring down at him. Gambol Shroud's blade pointed at his throat, and she broke her silence,

"Where's Ruby?" Torchwick smiled,

"So that was what that girl's name was...?" Blake froze,

"Was?" She asked, horror seeping into her body,

"Oh, did I use the wrong tense?" He asked, but Blake was already moving, one swift kick and Roman was out cold. She was about to run into the engin of the train, when the automatic doors behind her flew open.

* * *

Weiss watched the door close behind Blake, then she stared at the man, he stood tall before her, standing at least a foot and a half higher then her, even with her heels. "I finally get to kill a Schnee." The man stated, going into a fighting stance, the intent to kill filling the air around him.

Weiss smiled, "I won't be the first of my family to die." She stated simply, "My sister will likely take that place." The two lunged at about the same time, when for Weiss, the man seemed to speed up.

His semblance, it slowed down his time perception, he was going faster then a person under normal circumstances could. Coming to that realization, Weiss dodged quickly, and formed glyphs all over the train car.

Hit after hit she landed, and when he tried to use his semblance, she countered with her newly mastered time glyphs. It was a quick fight, and she left the man unconcious, and aura depleted to two percent. Running, she paid no mind to the automatic doors, and slammed right through them.

Only to find an unconcious Torchwick, and a startled Blake. The two looked at each other, then, without a word, rushed into the engine room. What they found, astounded them to no end, and Blake had to check to make sure she wasn't imagining the fact that she was still in possession of Ruby's weapon, this scene was just, impossible.

* * *

Ruby sat, hands tied tightly behind her. She had long since stopped struggling, her aura couldn't heal her with that ring on her ankle, and her semblance wouldn't kick in. She had stopped when the rope began to slowly turn moist with her sweat, the skin rubbed raw from her attempts at escape. But maybe, she could get a guard to untie her, then if she could just...

Ruby looked up at the men, seven or eight of them were running the engine, and another was holding onto the other end of the rope binding her hands. She tried talking to him,

"Hey, uh, sir?" The man looked down, even with a mask on, he was still clearly annoyed, "what now?" Ruby shrugged, "I was just wondering, I mean the rope is really, and it was uncomfortable before that, but now... It just makes me think about my mom..." The man seemed confused, after all, Ruby was drawing on a skill she rarely ever used, even with family, it just seemed horribly wrong. Lying.

"What are you talking about, human?" The man said the word with so much contempt, Ruby knew she would have to try really hard to make this work. To make this man feel some sort of empathy.

"Yea... My mom was a huntress, but they found her body..." She stopped, chocking back mostly fake tears, after all, they had never found a body, "Covered in blood. Her wrists rubbed raw, her body covered in bloody marks, all beyond compare..."

She stopped again, chocking back more fake tears, though, the memory of her mother was bringing some real ones out too.

"No Grimm would do that..." She looked up at the obviously unsettled man, "it had to be a human." She tried her best to match the contempt he had used with the word. It worked. The man looked, moved.

"Look. If you promise not to go anywhere, and don't tell anyone, then fine." Ruby nodded, a fake tear falling down her face. This guy was stupid. First rule of hostage taking, never listen to the hostage, they tell lies. The man untied her hands, leaving the wet ropes on the ground behind her.

She rubbed her wrists, but stopped. She stared down at her wrists in shock, "What..." Her hand that had rubbed her wrist had bits of blood on it. She looked behind her, how long had she been bleeding? Without realizing it, she started hyperventilating,

"Hey," the man looked at her, unnerved by her reaction to the blood.

"Red... Red like roses." Ruby whispered, and the man asked his question, "are... Are you okay?" He never received an answer.

Ruby had learned a lot at Beacon, for instance, she had become a lot better at turning her fight or flight instinct from flight to fight. Panic driven, or not. She wasn't really thinking when she grabbed the man's weapon and jumped away from him.

She was in autopilot as the men in the engine room, nine in all, stopped what they were doing and stared at her. She remembered back when she first started out at Signal. No weapon seemed to fit her, she was good with them all, but she couldn't find a weapon that matched her.

She was well versed in the art of swordplay, and was the best weapon smith around. Name a weapon, and Ruby could probably do massive damage to your aura with it. So she stood, in proper stance with the sword, bits of blood trailing slowly down her arms, ready to fight her captors.

One of the men, the man who was in charge of watching her, lunged forwards, she easily nocked him unconcious. His sleeping body fell to the ground with a heavy thump. And a few more came at her.

As she fought the men, easily mind you, she barely registered the doors open. "Ruby?" Weiss called, she and Blake staring in shock as the last man fell unconcious. Ruby dropped the sword.

She turned to face her teammate's. Before either of the girls could say another word, Ruby rushed towards them, engulfing the two in a hug. That's when Weiss noticed the blood. "Ruby, what happened?" She asked, both girls pulling away, and Blake picking up one of Ruby's hands to inspect her wrist.

"The rope was really tight..." She stated, almost emotionless to the words that came out of her own mouth. She pointed with her free hand to a corner of the room. Weiss followed her gaze. In a disheveled pile in the corner, stood a wadded up pile of bloody rope. Weiss felt sick.

Suddenly, Yang ran through the he door, and stopped in the room, "Ruby!" She yelled, barreling Weiss and Blake out of the way. She enveloped her little sister in a humongous bear hug, but Weiss was quick to break them apart. Before Yang noticed the blood.

"We need to stop the train." She pointed at the control panel.

"I think I can try." Ooblek dropped down from the ceiling, "good to see you Ruby." He stated, before making his way over to a control panel. Zwei jumped down behind the doctor, but upon seeing Ruby, jumped into her arms.

She clutched him as though he would disapear, but only Yang noticed. "Never mind." Ooblek said nonchalantly, before slamming his weapon and turned back to the group. Ruby gave a weak smile before she, with a voice just above a whisper, asked,

"Doctor Ooblek, do you know how to take this thing off?" The man looked down as Ruby lifted her foot up. He stared at the ring,

"Of course." He stated and leaned down to put his hand on the ring. A small yellow-orange glow could be seen, then the ring popped off.

"Gotta go!" He stated, before Ruby could thank him. Then he turned and jumped back up through the hatch. Zwei barked and Ruby reluctantly put him back on the ground. The tiny corgi followed the teacher up through the roof.

"Your dog is insane." Weiss addressed the sisters, before looking out through the front of the train.

"And our teacher isn't?" Yang muttered.

"Uh... guys... There's a huge wall right there..." Blake muttered, and Ruby shared a glance with Weiss. Weiss gave a quick nodd of her head before slamming her rapier into the ground. A huge wall of ice encased them, right before impact with the wall that blocked them from the city of Vale.

* * *

The impact of the train shattered the ice case protecting team RWBY. Though it did protect the girls from most of the damage. Ruby came to slowly, her first coherent thought being that she was wishing the sirens would stop.

"Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level six. Please seek shelter. Please refrain from going outside." The siren was loud, the voice was louder, computerized and emotionless.

Ruby forced her eyes open, and looked around. Her vision blurry and unfocused. When it did focus, she could see Weiss coming-to a few feet away. Yang and Blake were already on their feet and fighting nearby Grimm.

All around her, people, ordinary civilians, people who had no clue how to fight fear itself, were running around in terror. Ruby's eyes widened in horror. She had to help these people. She had to kill the Grimm. She narrowed her eyes, she had to fight.

But where was Crescent Rose? Ruby stood up shakily, before catching her balance. Her aura and semblance finally kicked back in, in full force, after being forced into dormancy for about day. Rose petals fluttered to the ground. Her weapon sat neatly near her feet, obviously either Yang or Blake had put it there, after all, Weiss was just picking herself up, and Ooblek, as well as Zwei, were no where to be seen.

She picked up her beloved weapon and looked around, her eyes unknowingly flashing silver. She spared a glance at her partner, and Weiss caught her eye, and gave a thumbs up sign, the two were ready to go.

* * *

Team JNPR was getting ready to leave on their mission when a siren sounded in Vale. The group froze and looked towards the great walls of the city, the computerized voice began to speak throughout not just Vale, but Beacon as well. "Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level six. Please seek shelter. Please refrain from going outside."

The speaker in Vale shut off and the sirens continued, but in Beacon, it said just a little more, "all available huntsmen, please aid in the protection of the city." The entire message played on a loop in Beacon, possibly more annoyingly loud then the sirens in Vale. NPR looked at J.

Jaune looked at the members of his team, "you heard the fake voice. Let's go!" He ran onto the ship at told the pilot about the change in direction. Ren and Nora looked at Pyrrah who shrugged and ran onto the chill hood friends following behind.

* * *

Ruby cleaved through yet another alpha Grimm, causing the Grimm around it to separate in confused chaos, their only goal in life being to kill. These young and thoughtless Grimm were easily picked off by her partner in a vicious cycle of kill or be killed, separate and descend into chaos. A good method for defeating hordes of Grimm.

Yang and Blake were about fifty feet away, dealing with Death-stalkers. There were just too many Grimm. Hordes and hordes. A sea of deadly black white and red. The yellow accents of their eyes gleaming in a deadly desire. Ruby looked around, she could easily kill thousands of these creatures in seconds, the only problem was the people.

Here and there, civilians were cornered, and screaming in fear. An idea came to her. "Team RWBY! Regroup!" She yelled, and jumped to a spot devoid of Grimm. Weiss following close behind. Yang and Blake looked up, and jumped over as well.

"Blake, try and kill as many Grimm as fast as you can, but make sure people are out of the way and safe, and don't go near me, or I might a identity hit you. Yang and Weiss, find and help cornered people, but stay clear of Crescent Rose." She held up her massive scythe in affirmation.

Blake nodded and jumped away, Weiss following close behind. Only Yang spoke to her little sister before jumping off to help people as well, "be careful Rubes." She patted the girl on the shoulder before turning and running towards a couple, cornered near an empty store, and clutching each other.

Ruby smiled weakly, and loaded a mixture of fire and gravity dust into her scythe. She couldn't handle full on gravity dust yet, but she found mixtures with twenty percent of gravity dust worked just fine for her, letting her move farther and higher, much, much, faster.

Smiling slightly to herself, she shot a round, and flew off to the first Grimm that would be downed by her deadly weapon. Her silver eyes flashing with the same silver her mother's had before her. Seconds passed, and Grimm fell around her, a cloud of disintigrating darkness flying around her, rose petals piling up in carpets around her feet. Hordes upon hordes of Grimm fell behind her, bullets drpping to the ground in slow motion compared to the speed at which she was moving.

"should we help her?" Weiss asked Yang as they helped a few people into a building while Blake picked off any Grimm in the vicinity. Yang looked over at her little sister.

"We are helping. We're staying out of the way, and keeping others safe." She looked at Weiss with a serious expression, "you know she's better solo during hoard attacks." Weiss shrugged and spared another glance at her partner before looking down at her scroll.

She was startled to find while she Blake and Yang were in the seventy and sixty percentage, Ruby was up in ninety five. Yang peeked over her shoulder,

"If her aura drops below eighty-five, then step in." She playfully punched Weiss as lightly as she could, which wasn't very light at all, "but she wont like it." as Weiss rubbed her shoulder Yang ran off to help Blake with an Alfa. Weiss grabbed her rapier and followed.

* * *

The bullhead flew over the city of Vale. it found and began to circle a crater, Grimm were piling out of the crater, and around it, Team RWBY was either helping civilians to find shelter, or defeating hoards upon hoards of Grimm in mere seconds. Jaune and his team looked down into the sea of Grimm below them, they would need to jump, as there was no area clear enough to land.

"Let's go!" he yelled, and Nora was the first to jump. The moment the words had left his mouth, the girl had launched herself out of the bullhead, and down towards a king Taijutsu that was about to attack Yang Blake and Weiss. Jaune and Pyrrah jumped down to help as well, but Ren jumped in the direction of Ruby, who he could see had just run out of dust.

he landed just as she stopped in her twirling and jumping. As he hit the ground, he dealt a death blow to an Ursa. he stood up and looked at her, the petals beginning to settle as the disintegrating Grimm ceased to be whipped around by the whirlwind that was Ruby Rose. "out of ammo?" he asked, thinking it lucky that he, Blake and Ruby all used similar ammo. he threw a cartridge towards her.

Ruby looked down at the cartridge, "its fifty percent gravity dust." she observed, and Ren, who was taking out a few Beowolves looked back at her.

"Yea?" He asked, the Grimm disintegrating behind him. she looked at him apologetically,

"I've never handled any over twenty percent, it doesn't really blend well with my semblance." Ren had heard of people who couldn't use some types of dust because it had an adverse affect on their semblance, and with Ruby, it made sense, but it also meant that there was something more to her semblance, but only time would tell.

Ren smiled, "you never know till you try, and everything I've got either has that much or more." Ruby finally nodded before apprehensively loading the dust cartridges into her scythe. it wasn't a perfect fit, but it was close enough to not cause any problems.

Ruby took a deep breath and shot a round towards an Alfa Ursa. She found herself flying much faster then normal, but after a few tries on Grimm, landing sloppy, but effective killing blows on every one, she caught the hang of it, and was soon flying faster then ever before.

Meanwhile, the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR were close to the crater, Grimm had suddenly stopped flowing out of the hole and were now few and far between. they were about to begin investigating when Zwei, the tiny corgi, came flying out of the crater. Nora, who had been peering down the hole and into the darkness, stumbled backwards with a startled, "whaaa!"

She had every right to be startled, after all, the dog was encased in a giant ball of fire. the dog flew strait into a nearby Grimm, nocking it down as Ooblek also appeared out of the hole. just in time to land a killing blow on the Grimm Zwei had previously hit. "Professor!?" Pyrrah yelled in surprise.

The man turned to look at her, "Doctor..." he muttered before continuing, "what are you all doing? start destroying the Grimm!" he then marched off towards the next creature, just as team CFVY jumped down and entered the fray. Ruby's friend Emerald even showed up with her teammate, as well as team SSSN.

The teams quickly scattered to kill any Grimm left, and Jaune ran off with Pyrrah to pick off any Grimm that had made it out of the plaza. SSSN did the same, as well as Velvet and Fox of team CFVY. Ruby and Ren joined up with WBY and N of JNPR just as they caught sight of Glynda, who was stomping angrily through the streets of Vale, killing any Grimm that came within a ten foot radius of her.

She stalked up to the hole in the middle of the plaza, and with a wave of what Ruby now knew was modeled after a riding crop, the hole was covered by what was once rubble, but now was unmarked, and unscathed, perfectly placed, street. just as it once had been. Atlas airships began to fly over the plaza, shooting down any remaining Grimm, anywhere in he vicinity.

The woman turned to face the children standing before her, "what happened?" She asked, staring directly at team Ruby, more specifically, Ruby herself. ruby stared back at the woman, a tiredness Glynda rarely ever saw in her life. Ooblek chose that moment to walk over, "I do believe I can explain the altercations that lead to this specific... altercation." He motioned for Glynda to walk and talk with him, away from team RWBY and NR.

Yang breathed a sigh of relief, and looked to where just minutes ago, a giant hole spewing Grimm had been, "well, that was a thing." She muttered, before looking down at Ruby, who looked about ready to fall asleep standing, "Hey, Rubes, you okay?"

Ruby looked up at her sister, sleepiness apparent in her silver eyes, "I want to go home." She whispered, and Yang hugged her, "Yea, I know." She spoke into her baby sister's hair, "well go home really soon."

* * *

The teams who had fought in what was being publicized as the Breach had returned home. everyone had disappeared into their dorms, not to appear again until class, the next morning.

It was hard to believe that everything team RWBY had experienced had taken place in about two days, it felt much longer. Ruby had taken a shower, then fallen asleep in her bunk. She slept quietly as the three older girls talked quietly.

Blake was busy blaming herself, "if I had just checked the secret passageways. I should've known people would know about them." Yang shrugged, before remembering something,

"Oh, I almost forgot!" the blond yelled before taking a small picture out of her pocket, "look, I found a picture of a girl that kinda looks like you, do you know her?" it was an innocent question, but Yang hadn't been expecting the shocked look on Blake's face.

Blake inhaled sharply before taking the picture from Yang, "It's me..." She whispered, staring at the photo of her lost family. Yang laughed nervously, completely lost,

"What?" She asked, watching Blake carefully. Weiss looked up from where she had been using her scroll on her bed and walked over to have a look herself. Yang suddenly began to put the pieces together. Blake did know about Mountain Glen's secret passageways after all, "You grew up in Mountain Glen, didn't you?" she asked her friend. and Blake nodded.

"What happened to your family?" Yang prodded lightly, and Blake shrugged,

"We got, separated, during the evacuation. I haven't seen them since. I got left behind, and that's how I found Adam." Yang nodded absently, before standing up and grabbing her pjs. she patted Blake on the back as the girl stared at the photo of the family she hadn't seen since she was a little girl, before leaving for the bathroom, closing the door behind her.


	7. People of the Past and Present

A/N: Hey, I'm back, sorry for the new chapter spam... I guess hiatus is over for now. Not much of a hiatus... But I'm going to try for longer chapters, which means there might be longer waiting periods in between.

I want to explain the mechanic of Silver eyed genetics. If one of the parents have silver eyes, the second, fourth, sixth, ect. Children will have the trait. However, if both parents have the trait, all their children will also have the trait.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and we all know I didn't come up with the music in the chapter. We're closing in on the end of volume three, be ready for all hell to break loose. :)

* * *

"Have you seen Ruby?" It had been a week since The Breach, and Ruby was no where to be found. Classes had been cancelled that day, as most people at Beacon were either helping set up the fair grounds, training for the tournament.

Yang was looking for her sister, but with no luck. She had come back to the dorm room to find Weiss, who hadn't been there when she'd left. Weiss looked up from her calculus text,

"Don't you have that scroll tracker?" She asked, giving Yang a quizzical look.

The blonde shrugged, "oh... Yea..." She sheepishly took her scroll out of her pocket. She typed a few words and pressed a button or two. A map came up, as well as some basic readings.

"Hey, it says she's at the fair grounds." Yang held up the devise triumphantly. Weiss sighed, looking back down at her book. Almost absentmindedly, she gave her own two cents worth,

"I wonder what would happen if Ruby broke her scroll and had to get a new one."

Yang didn't answer her, so Weiss looked up, but the blonde was gone. Sighing, she looked back down at her book, and highlighted a line in the text. Suddenly Sun's voice could be heard outside the open window,

"Hey! Have you seen Ruby or Blake?"

Weiss screeched in surprise, "Sun! I told you to stop doing that!" She yelled in anger, putting her book on her desk and turning to face the boy. He hung upside down, by his tail, in the tree next to the building, looked fairly amused.

"Well, have you seen her or not?" He asked, "Oh, and I found Ruby's scroll." and Weiss just glared at him.

"I'll take that as a no." His tail let go of the tree, and the teen disapeared. Weiss let out another exasperated sigh, and sat back down. She had just picked up her book when Pyrrah's voice could be heard through the open door.

"No! Nora don't mess with tha-" BOOM! A loud explosion could be heard, as well as Ren's monotonous voice, "I told you not to show her the dust mixer..." Weiss let out a growl of frustration, and tried reading the same paragraph, again. Why on God's green earth had she highlighted that sentence?

She didn't realize Jaune had entered his dorm until, "What, happened!?" She groaned and put her book away. She would study later.

She took out Mertanaster and began to disassemble it. A rose petal landed on the desk.

"Hey Weiss, have you seen Blake or my scroll?"

Weiss didn't look up from where she was taking apart her weapon, "Try the sun." She muttered. More rose petals landed on the desk after a,

"Thanks Weiss!" Weiss groaned and didn't answer. She tried Ruby's breathing technique. It worked until,

"Hey Weiss, have you seen Sun or Ruby? Neptune says they're looking for me." Blake stood in the doorway.

"Gahhhhhhh!" The heiress yelled in anger, "Can't you all leave me alone for two minutes!?" She yelled, standing up in anger. Blake took a step back,

"okay.. Geez, I'm sorry." The Faunus girl with the bow walked away, and Weiss yelled,

"Try the fair!" Before plopping face first onto her bed.

"I give up." She muttered.

* * *

Ruby was having fun at the fair grounds. She was helping the man that worked at the noodles shop set up his stall. He was really nice, and his brother owned her favorite dust shop.

She finished helping him, and explored the rest of the half assembled fair grounds. An old woman had a stand she was filling with things she had crocheted. Ruby stopped outside her stall when she realized the woman was having quite a large amount of trouble.

"Ma'am," she tried to get the woman's attention. The old woman turned around, and Ruby noticed that within her silver hair was a Pair of cat ears.

"Yes?" The woman asked, and Ruby tried to speak,

"I go to school at Beacon, would you like some help setting up?"

The woman breathed a sigh of relief, "Yes of course, help would be wonderful, my name is Lilly Bell, you can call me Lilly though, what is your name dear?"

Ruby smiled, and helped the woman hang up blankets on a few racks, "Ruby Rose." She said quietly. The two worked in comfortable silence, until a man walked up.

"Hey Lilly, who's this?" The man asked, and Ruby realized the two knew each other. But Ruby could tell that his eyes weren't that of a Faunus. He was a human. The woman looked happy enough to see him though,

"Mornin Jonah, this here is Ruby." The woman turned to Ruby, "this is my Husband, Jonah Donna." Something clicked in Ruby's mind, and she asked a question,

"Did you two by any chance combine your names for your children?" The two older people seemed a little taken back by that,

"Why, yes, we did, why do you ask sweetie?" Lilly asked, a spark of what Ruby interpreted was hope, deep within her eyes, and Ruby asked again,

"Did you have a daughter, and she's about seventeen now?" Lilly's eyes took on a sad look,

"Yes dear, but we were told she died during the evacuation of Mountain Glen when she was about six."

Ruby's eyes lit up, "is her name Blake?" She asked, her voice involuntarily rising an octave. The two just stared at her, and Jonah answered,

"yes, we named our daughter Blake, and our son, Jake." His eyes showed rays of hope as he took a step forward, "have you met our daughter?"

Ruby was practically jumping for joy by that point, "She's on my team, I can call her right now!" Ruby fumbled in her pockets for her scroll. She couldn't find it, "Right after I find my scroll, don't go any where, I'll be right back!" Ruby took off, her semblance blanketing the floor of the stall in beautiful rose petals.

"These are nice." Lilly picked up a petal, "involuntary decorations." Jonah watched the girl, rose petals lining a train she was practically blazing through the fair grounds. Students and venders jumped out of her way. Kids who knew her would shout at her to slow down, but the girl probably didn't hear them.

"Do you really think Blake is alive?" He asked, but Lilly was already calling her son, and telling him to get back to their stall.

* * *

Ruby ran strait into Sun, who was stupid enough to think she would see, and go around, him. "Oops.. Sorry..." Ruby muttered, catching her balance, but then she noticed who it was, "Hey Sun, have you seen Blake?"

Sun picked himself up off the ground and brushed himself off, Neltune and Scarlett were snickering behind him, "No, why?"

"Because I need to talk to her, oh, and if you see my scroll, find me, I don't know where it is, it's got a cross and a rose decorations on it, thanks!" Ruby was already gone. Rose petals were settling as additions to the increasingly long trail she was making. Sun turned to his two teammates, who were still laughing.

"Looks like we're looking for Blake." He stated, and ran off, missing the exasperated groans of his teammate's. Sun rounded a corner of a stall at the fairgrounds. Lying there on the ground, was Ruby's scroll. Time to go find Ruby, and Blake. Yang passed by just as Sun pocketed his friend's scroll. Yang was staring at her own devise in confusion, and Sun called, "hey Yang!"

Yang didn't answer. Sun shrugged and walked in the opposite direction as the blonde.

* * *

The first thing Sun did was drop by the girls' dorm. Weiss looked like she was studying, "Hey Weiss, have you seen Ruby or Blake?" The heiress screeched and jumped out of her chair.

He wasnt expecting that reaction. Weiss was obviously angry, and in all her yelling, she didn't answer the question. He took her final act of silence as a no, and dropped out of the tree he had been hanging in. He was about to walk away from the building when Ruby walked out of it dejectedly.

"Hey, Ruby, I found your scroll!"

Ruby's eyes lit up, "so she wasn't yelling at me to throw myself into the sun!" She yelled happily, taking the scroll from Sun.

"What?" The older boy asked, clearly confused.

"Nothing!" Ruby yelled, "let's go try the fair grounds again." She suggested, to which Sun nodded.

* * *

The two friends returned to the fair, and Ruby lead Sun to the stall of the Bell-Donna Family.

"These people are Blake's parents." Ruby introduced them to Sun, "I can't find Blake."

Sun stared at her blankly, "have you tried calling her?" He asked, and Ruby blushed, scratching her head as well,

"No... I forgot..."

Sun face-palmed. Ruby took out her scroll and dialed her teammate's number. After it rang a few times, a

"Hello?" Was heard. Ruby's face lit up.

"Hey, Blake, can you come to the fair grounds?"

"Why?"

"Just look for the stall with all the crocheted stuff."

"Fine, give me a few minutes."

The phone call ended, and Ruby made an exited squeeky noise.

* * *

Blake had just hung up the phone after Ruby had called her. She sighed and began the short walk to the fair grounds. She could see slightly dispersed rose petals leading towards the grounds, and easily followed them to the stall Ruby had described. Ruby wasn't there.

"Ruby?" She called, walking into the stall with rose petals strewn on the floor. The three people she did find there, made her heard skip a beat. Silvery hair with the same trait she had inherited. Her baby brother, Jake stood there, eleven years older then the last time she had seen him.

Standing behind him was his mother and father. Her mother and father. Ruby had found them.

* * *

Yang and Ruby were sitting at the stall with the noodles. The man was giving them a free lunch for Ruby's help with his setup. Thanks to her speed, he had been the first to start a steady income from the fair.

"Hey, do you know what Blake's up to today?" Yang asked, through a mouthful of noodles. She hadn't seen her partner at all that day. Ruby smiled,

"She's catching up with her family."

Yang chocked on her food. "What!?" She asked, turning to stare at her little sister. The girl didn't give any more information, just continued to eat her free food.

* * *

Blake had learned that her family had moved to Mistral after the fall of Mountain Glen. Her brother was studying to go to Haven when he was old enough. His weapon consisted of two long swords. Each were much longer then an average katana, and almost taller then him. They folded up into sheaths that were about the length of his forearm.

Her little brother was a strong fighter. He was very good at dispatching all types of Grimm. And after what she had learned about Ruby, she realized that his silvery eyes were probably hiding a similar dormant power.

She didn't comment on it though, after all, her brother had never really met her. They had a lot of catching up to do. She spent the rest of the day with the family she thought she would never see again.

* * *

It was quiet. Too quiet. Weiss looked up from her journal. It had been an hour, and no one had come bardging in on her time to write music... Secretly mind you... to ask her something. It was a little lonely. She could hear Nora laughing down in the common room. Jaune and Pyrrah's voices carried up to the floor as well.

Weiss sighed and put away her journal, carefully hidden inside her backpack. Tentively she bagan to see what her friends downstairs were up to. A little social time never killed anybody, right?

* * *

Qrow had finally arrived back in Vale. He'd been gone for about two weeks, on a special mission. He was already making up a story to tell his nieces when they asked what he was doing. He sat inside his favorite bar, watching the news as he drank a glass of alcohol.

"The Amity Colleseum is making its way to Beacon, it is set to arrive around noon tomorrow. In three days, the tournament is set to begin."

Qrow knew the man who worked at the bar, he knew the owner as well. They were old friends, and it was Qrow and his incredible ability it put away alcohol that the bar was named after.

"Good to see ya back in Vale." The bartender was cleaning a glass while watching the news, "how was that mission?"

Qrow groaned, "Horrible." He stated, taking another drink. He should probably head back to Patch and fill Tai in, after all, he had no way of contacting anyone on the island.

* * *

Qrow returned to Patch, late at night. Not wanting to disturb Tai, he opened the window to his own room, he always left it unlocked, and stepped into the bedroom. It was dark in the room, and Qrow closed the window. He was lucky enough to have a room that connected to a bathroom.

Making sure his bedroom door was closed, Qrow turned on the light in his bathroom. After a few minutes, the last thing he did before turning out the lights, was take out his contact lenses.

The red color that matched his sister and his father turned to the silver that matched his mother. The light turned off, and Qrow went to sleep

* * *

The sound of cleaning was a familiar, but annoying, sound that Qrow, unfortunetly, woke up to. Groaning, he got up and walked into the kitchen, just as Tai turned off the sink.

"Mornin." The scythe wielder muttered, sitting down at the bar.

"Qrow!?" Tai spun around, a look of compete surprise on his face. The man in front of him just took an apple out of the bowl that always sat on the counter. "When did you get in?"

Qrow took a bite of his fruit, "Late last night." Tai shrugged, and grabbed a clean dish, he bagan to dry it, "How'd the mission go?" He asked idly, putting the plate away in the cabinet behind him.

"We lost Amber." Qrow took another bite out of the apple, and Tai froze. He turned around, plate still in his hand.

"Amber's dead?" He asked, horror plain and clear in his voice. Qrow shook his head,

"Worse, from what we've gathered so far, half her soul was sucked out." Tai stared at him,

"What...?" The father of two asked, trying to make sure he heard right. Qrow continued,

"If we're lucky, she'll live till the end of the Vytal festival." Qrow sighed, and took another bite of his apple, "Poor kid. She's about Yang's age."

Tai sighed, "what's Ozpin's plan?" He asked, and Qrow shrugged,

"Haven't talked to him about it yet."

Tai sighed, "do you think they know about Silver Eyes?" He asked, a bit of fear relate to in his voice.

Qrow could only shrug, taking another bite of his fruit, "I haven't the slightest."

Tai sighed, and with that one expulsion of air, he let out the pent up anxiety and fear he'd been hiding since the day Yang had been born.

* * *

Ruby sat on the ground of her dorm, scroll in hand, staring at a holographic screen in front of the window. She was playing a role playing game, and Weiss thought it seemed a little creepy. Monsters fighting each other until they past out only to be 'revived' so they could fight some more?

It gave Weiss the shivers. The heiress herself, sat on her bed, song book in one hand, pencil in the other, writing. But it wasn't really a song. More of sentences she thought might one day be able to go into a song. This hobby that she used to find fun, see as an escape, had been found out by her parents when she was around six.

Since then, they had successfully used her as a new source of income. Well not in the truest sense. Her mother had encouraged her, shown her that she could do so much with the talents she had. When the woman died, her father had turned it into a money machine. A sudden thought came to her.

She didn't need to stick to topics her father enforced anymore. She could write what she wanted to now. Through music, she could finally tell her father how she felt. How she felt when she was younger. How should she word her thoughts though?

"Whatcha doin Weiss?" The question startled her enough to accidentally fling her pencil across the room.

"Ruby!?"

Ruby stared at the older girl in confusion, "yea...?"

Weiss sighed and closed her eyes. She then opened them again, a sudden thought coming to her, "Hey, maybe you can help me."

Ruby was leaning over her shoulder now, looking into the journal, "Ooo, how?" Weiss handed her the journal before standing up to retrieve her pencil.

"I write songs."

Ruby's eyes shot up to her partner, "Really?" Weiss sighed and fought against the urg to roll her eyes.

"Yes, want to help?"

Ruby nodded, and handed the journal back to her friend, "How?"

"Just tell me if this sentence makes sense." Was the answer the fifteen year old received, and Weiss wrote down a line.

 _Wasted years I spent, never knowing, I was kept, I was used, never ending._

Ruby's eyes scanned the first line, "Well that's kinda dark." She ended her scrutiny with. Weiss groaned,

"Yeah, but is it good?"

Ruby nodded, eyes still glued to the line. Weiss smiled to herself, secretly glad for her friend's approval, she began to come up with another line.

 _If I just closed my eyes, then I could go any place, imagination set the pace, and my heart was happy._

Ruby read the line, and made a suggestion, "How about, 'happy there?'" She asked, pointing to the end of the sentence. Weiss read through it again with Ruby's add on, then nodded,

"Okay." She added in the word. This continued for around an hour, sometimes Ruby would suggest a line be moved to a different part of the page, and slowly a song formed. Two hours later, and the girl's had a complete song written out on the paper.

"But," Ruby looked up at Weiss in confusion, "What about the music notes?" The girl asked. And Weiss smiled. Out from under her bed, she pulled out a suitcase she had neglected to unpack during the entirety of the year. Inside the suitcase, packed neatly was a guitar.

"I had to leave the case home." She explained, picking up the instrument as if it would break.

"Why?" The younger asked, staring at the ornate object. It looked more like a decoration then an instrument.

"So my father wouldn't know I brought it. He thought if I left it home, I would eventually have to come back."

"Couldn't you just buy a new guitar?" Ruby asked, staring at the expensive object, Weiss sighed, putting the instrument on her bed and shoving the suitcase back under the bed.

"My brother gave it to me."

Ruby nodded, "Ohh."

* * *

Zwei followed his hyperactive owner through the fairgrounds. He barked in amusement every time something caught her attention, causing her to zoom off to take a closer look. Zwei had become a part of the family when Ruby was around two. His mother lived about two miles up the road, in the mountains.

He was the pick of the litter, first to open his eyes, first to start to use his aura, first to use his semblance, at the detriment of his owners.

You see, animals work differently then humans, they don't need to unlock their aura, they simply start using it, it's instinctual. They can also be trained to use it as well. Animals can become valuable companions to lone hunters in the wild. He was about to follow his owner to the next stall when he felt a presence.

He turned to find a redhead with a greenish bow. But she didn't smell like a human. She smelled like metal. It seemed off. He started to raise a warning to his owner, barking at the girl, who jumped back, startled by his loud onslaught.

"Zwei!" Ruby yelled, running over to stop her pet from barking. She scooped him up into her arms and looked at what Zwei had been fixated on, "Penny!"

"Hello Ruby!" The girl's speech seemed much more fluid then the last time Ruby spoke with her, "What are you doing here?" She still didn't use any contractions though.

Ruby held Zwei in her arms, the dig had quieted down once he understood Penny wasn't dangerous, "Oh, just looking around the fair grounds." She motioned to the stalls around her.

Penny nodded, "Are you exited for the tournament?" The android asked, looking at her friend in question. Ruby nodded.

"Yeah, but I'm kinda nervous, it'll be in front of the whole world." Ruby paused, and Penny nodded, "But it seems like so much fun!" The fifteen year old finished. Zwei barked to match her enthusiasm.

Penny laughed, "I hope to do well as well," she paused when both girls noticed some soldiers coming around the corner, "I've gotta go Ruby," she took off running in the opposite direction, yelling, "Bye!" Over her shoulder.

Ruby let Zwei jump out of her hands and waved as well, "Bye!" She yelled.

Zwei had no idea what to make of the strange machine with an aura.

* * *

The man hadn't seen a single Grimm in over three hundred years. He hadn't seen another human in one hundred and fifty years. He only went outside when he absolutely needed to. His home was right next to a river, hidden away in the mountains of an island. He hadn't talked to anyone in so long that he was beginning to forget the way his voice sounded. And this was the way he liked it.

The last time he'd seen civilization, there was only two countries. Mantle, and Helens. Humanity had carved a niche for itself in the north eastern side of the world. He didn't want to be part of a civilization destined for war anyway. Besides, there was that... Thing.

It used to help him. He asked it for advise whenever it was there. Salem it was called. He grew up seeing Salem. It had told him so many things, given him a wealth of information, showed him how he could use his power. Showed him how to control and multiply it.

But that was so long ago. When he was a young man, he found out the truth. He found out what Salem had tried to keep hidden. It was once human, but no longer. Salem was the beginning of the Grimm. She was older then every living thing on Remnant. It had used power for greed, multiplied it in the ways of evil, she had tried to start a war.

There used to be major civilizations everywhere. The entire planet was built up on the power of humans. The entire world was filled with prosperity, but then Salem arose to full power. He remembered well, he was around twenty five when it happened, he remembered watching the ComBox as town after town, city after city, was decimated.

He watched the creature he had called a friend destroy the world, then come after him, for his power. It was, in reality, thousands of years old. He watched as it wiped away everything, destroyed every proof of history that there was. But it didn't get everything.

He grabbed a complete history book on humans. He grabbed maps and all the books he could carry, and fled to an island. A forgotten land, where humans never ventured. None of the radio systems worked on this island, and it stood, uninhabited, throughout all of history.

He fled there, with his wealth of knowledge, and his power, and he withdrew from what was left of humanity. He stayed there, for three hundred years. One hundred and fifty years ago, a lone woman with silver eyes had come to him. He asked her if her power still stood. She said yes. Her power to freeze enemies still stood. But she was the last of her kind. The silver eyes warriors.

Their enemies freeze before their power. Silver erupts from their eyes and they remove their foes from the time continuum. Their victims can not touch things, but they can be touched by others. They cannot harm anyone, but others can destroy them. Their lives get cut from reality to the point of no return. The silver eyes power had no effect on the Grimm.

She gave him information on the current state of the world. There used to be seven countries. But only two remained. Mantle, and Helens. Mantle had fortified itself, and become what his books would call a kingdom. From the olden times a kingdom was ruled by a king, but Mantle had no history to go off of, they called it what it looked like, even though it was by no means, a kingdom in the truest form.

In return for her information, he helped modify her power, "Reach into your soul and find, the truest form of your enemy." He told her, "The ones that bear not a soul in defense. The ones that cannot begin to access a semblance. They breed from darkness, the feed on the absence of light."

The woman who stood in front of him, last of the silver eyed warriors. Eyes closed, body glowing an ornate silver. "The creatures of Grimm. Your power defends against foes, but those foes are no longer human, you must change accordingly." The power radiating from the woman in front of him grew, blinding the man, and enveloping his cottage.

When it filtered away, the woman opened her eyes. Silver irises glowed with a deadly light. Standing before the ancient man, was the perfect power to defeat the Grimm. "One day." He wasn't sure where his prophecy was coming from, but he knew enough to trust his power. "Your decendents will be scattered across the world. They will come together when the world needs it most, and defeat the harbinger of darkness."

This woman would never know that he meant the origins of the Grimm, history had already been forgotten by the outside world. "Your decendents will meet my predecessors, but they will know not the destiny they seek. Until the day of darkness comes." The woman had laughed a little, but the seriousness in her eyes did not waver. The glow inside them disapeared as she spoke,

"Silas, you always have spoken in riddles." The man had smiled, "Leave this place, for it is exempt from the attacks of Grimm." He smiled, "You and your children will always be welcome to the safety this place offers, but you must protect those who cannot protect themselves."

He watched the woman leave, and added to the history books. It was time to get to work. In order to insure the future, he must protect the record of the past. He must leave his cottage.

He ventured outside to look for a good place to build. The side of the mountain would work. He bagan his plans. Traps that would only set off if something without an aura tried to pass through. It didn't have an aura after all. He hid the traps as will as the tunnel well, there was no way to tell anything was there.

The entire endeavor took fifty years, but it was worth every bit of it. On the last trip of the last day. He was returning to his cottage to find it ripped apart. In that moment, he thanked God that he had finished bringing the knowledge he'd hordes to the hidden passageway. It would never be able to get to it now.

Salem stood in its full night, by he knew better, "I don't know why I left you to your own devises all these years, in all honest, I have no idea what you've been doing the past four hundred years, but where are the books, the maps, what did you do to that woman?"

The man, Silas, stood his ground, "Why Salem, where would I put them?"

The creature showed visible signs of anger, before in a low voice, threatening, "From one person to another, we both know you took something from that library before I burned it down."

The man smiled, "my only interest that day was getting away from you, and from me to you, we both know you left your humanity behind the day you traded away your aura."

Fury flashed behind its eyes, and Salem stared at him, "if only you had the power to stop me."

"One day, someone will. You will see me in them."

"Is that what you did to that woman? You added something to her aura!"

"So I did."

"She will die one day."

"Trust me in the fullest, Salem," the man's voice became low and menacing, "my power will one day be stronger then yours, one day, mine, as well as Angela's, will have multiplied to a point where neither you, nor your creations, will ever be able to destroy it." His eyes narrowed, "humanity and the Faunus alike, we will destroy you."

"Faunus?" She asked, confusion clear on her voice, "What is that?"

The man smiled, "One day you will see, but for now, I can already prove to you, that in this place, your power is immensely lessened."

It's eyes widened, "what do you mean."

"The lost world, the darkness separated from the light so long ago, evil in its trues form.' He raised a cane he had taken to carrying around, "light will always find a way to beat darkness, the oldest form of power."

Light erupted from his cane, and it's eyes filled with surprise, "you realize I can still control things, even from that place!"

The man ignored her comment, "One day, your creatures will all join you, and you will be trapped in the void of evil for all eternity, but for now, I can only send you, and your creatures, to limbo." He watched his old friend freeze, before disintigrating into nothingness. It's words however, would still be heard by him.

"My Grimm still roam, no one can stop them from multiplying. One day, I'll find a way to interact with the world once again, you'll be in for it then."

The man smiled, "You won't stand a chance."

So the years past, and before the man knew it, a young boy, a mop of black hair, and deep blue eyes came to his cottage. His apprentice had arrived. Fifty years, the man taught the boy everything he knew. Fifty years, Silas prepared Wesley for the life the boy would lead.

The first time Wesley spoke with Salem had been rough, but it only gave the boy more strength to carry on the hope for a future of humanity. You see, when Wesley became twenty years old, Silas passed on. But not in the traditional sense.

"Wesley, come here." He sat in an old chair. The boy, a young man really, sat down in front of the chair, "When I was close to your age, Grimm didn't exist." He watched Wesley's eyes widen in surprise, "The creature you spoke with, debated against, was Salem, it used to be human, but that was so long ago, no one on the earth even has a record from that time. Exept for us."

Wesley nodded, and the man continued, "When you came here, you knew nothing of powers, it only lives in fairy tails now, so we must call it as the outside world understands it. Magic."

Wesley's eyes bore confusion, and the man continued, "It is not magic, but another representation of a person's soul. Everyone has a soul, and an aura. Everyone has a semblance. Few people have a power."

Wesley nodded, understanding etching his features, and Silas continued, "It is, in all honestly, an attachment to the soul. It can be replicated from parent to child. It can be created by someone with a strong enough power. But some powers must be given only through death."

Wesley's eyes opened in worry, but Silas wasn't done yet, "my power is hard to explain. It was given to me by my father when I was four. I can give others power, manipulate their power, add to their aura. Mine as well, and I already have. But I can also keep the knowledge I've gained from others who at one point had that power."

"Like reincarnation?"

"No, I have no memories of the lives others have lived. But you will have memories of my four hundred and fifty year life. The power I will give you will triumph all power before it, inherently it will be the same as mine, but so much stronger. Nothing comes before it, and nothing as strong as it will ever be created again. People who have heard of your magnificent power will refer to you as the wizard. Even if I was the first. Only those who find the information I stored away about the world will find out about me."

He smiled down as the young man before him, "we have reached the end of my life, I have next to nothing left to teach you. When I die, you will gain my memories, but not my thoughts. So I give you a few last prophecies. During your life, you will create the first Faunus. During the early time of you're life, you will be almost four hundred years old, four silver eyes sisters will come to you. Just a few of the decendents of an old friend of mine. The five of you all will teach each other things none of you could ever have realized without the other."

The old man smiled down at Wesley, Welsey stared up at the man in worry, he was beginning to deteriorate. His breathing came in shallow, Silas' life was drawing to a close, "Welsey, I give this power to you." Were the last words of Silas, the world's first, and forgotten, wizard.

Silas closed his eyes for the last time. He never got to see the black hair of his apprentice turn to the silver that Silas had had since the age of four. He never saw the blue eyes take on the green color Silas had had as long as he could remember.

He never heard Wesley's shocked gasp as close to six thousand years of knowledge poured into his head. He never heard the intake of breath as Wesley found four to five hundred years of memories burst into his mind. He never got to hear Wesley speak in a language forgotten to time itself.

Remnant used to have a wide variety of languages, but Wesley had affirmed to Silas that all but one had been long lost. Wesley had a lot of work to get done.

One hundred years into his time as 'Wizard' and a group of young children arrived at his doorstep. Orphans, all of them. In order to not have to worry about them, the tiny village of vale had dropped them off on the uninhabited island, and the children had found him.

"Humans have discarded you, so you shall create your own kind, you shall be much more adept with your senses then humans. You will all be called Faunus. You will receive gifts the humans could only dream of. Night vision, better senses of hearing and smell."

Standing before him, the children all became a new kind of Faunus, each child with their own special trait. The children went away with an advantage to survival. Their animal traits made them less likely to be attacked by Grimm on the main land. To that day, Salem had been the only Grimm like creature to ever come to the island. It was only after the children had left that Wesley remembered his old mentor's words.

Three hundred years later found Wesley as a hermit. A nobody. He sat staring out at the snow, contemplating on his boring life when suddenly, he noticed something very odd. Beneath the tree near a river, sat a young woman. Cross legged under his tree, eyes closed, and meditating.

Frowning, he stood up and walked to his window, "hey!" He yelled, watching the young woman. Her eyes opened and she turned to look at him. Her dress was long and light blue, her hair was snow white. She stared at him with startlingly silver eyes.

His breath caught in his throat as he though of the prophecy given by his old mentor. Wesley smiled to himself, just a few more things to add to his history books. As well as the current state of things. He had gotten a lot of information from the children all those years ago, but it had been so long, he was admittedly, out of the loop.

The children had told him of the fall of the country of Helens and how Mantle was the only civilization for a "very long time" and that Vale and Vacuo were new offshoots of villages that people were trying to put into place. In the place of Helens, Mantle helped the survivors fortify what was left, and named it Mistral.

Those three new settlements were tiny, last time he'd heard about them, but who knew, maybe he could get some new information. He stared out at the girl, and she stared back at him. Finally he asked, "Who are you?"

The woman smiled, "My name is Winter, I'm on a journey, but now, I'm waiting for my sisters."

The man nodded, taking this information in, but he still had a question, "What are you doing?" He asked, looking at her in question.

The woman smiled, "Just enjoy the world around you, enjoy the sounds, the river, the animals." It wasn't really an answer. But the longer the girl sat there, the more he began to enjoy the things she had pointed out. He drifted off to sleep

He woke up to find another girl, standing above the light blue dressed one, this girl was dressed in a short green dress with very very thin sleeves. Almost like rope. Her hair was a light green, and he wondered if she was from an ancient tribe on the continent that Vale now stood on. He learned that survivors of every country had fled to mantle and Helens, these girls must be descendants of those tribes.

Then the girl looked up at him. You see, everywhere this girl went, the snow seemed to melt away. This was weird, even for the season-less Patch. Sometimes it would snow one day, only to be swelteringly hot the next. This girl however, seemed to defy the logic of even Patch.

This girl seemed to bring warmth wherever she went. When she looked up at him, he saw those same startlingly silver eyes. These girls must be related in some way, for he had never seen a silver eyed warrior, and if her remembered correctly, at one point, there was only one left.

Yes, these girls must be related. He came to this conclusion just as she smiled and waved, "What is your name?" He called out the window, looking from one girl to the other. If possible, this green clothed girl smiled more, "my name is Spring, I've been on a journey, but now, I'm waiting for my sisters."

Her silver eyes bore some differences to that of her sister. Where Winter's were filled with calm understanding, Spring was filled with mischievous joy. She seemed naïve in her gate, while Winter sat calmly in wait. Spring caught sight of what had once been Welsey's garden, "I can fix that for you." She told him, before running off into the direction of weeds, broken wood and rusted hinges.

"Suit yourself." The man muttered, and sat down in a chair he had moved to the window. Were these the girls his late mentor had prophesied so long ago? He sighed, and watched the girl, Spring, work.

In minutes she had fixed up his old fence, cleaned up the weeds, and was currently planting different seeds she had found in his old shed.

He was so interested in watching her work, that by the time he looked over at winter again, she was speaking to another girl. This girl wore shorts, he had never seen a girl wearing shorts before, and they were seriously short, ending midway down her thighs. Though he hadn't been in society much since he was young, social norms could have changed.

When she looked up at him, he noticed those same silver eyes. A joyous look deepset into them, giving her a carefree air. Three girls with silver eyes, he just had to ask, "what is your name?" He called when the girl looked up and waved at him.

"My name is Summer, I've been on a journey, and I'm waiting for my sister." Sister. Singular. Four girls with silver eyes. He wondered what this day held in store for him. It suddenly occurred to him that this, Summer, girl, was laughing at him.

"Why are you laughing at me?" He inquired, she covered her mouth to seem more polite.

"Why must you be so complacent? Come out and enjoy the sunlight, one day it may disappear." She seemed adamant about somehow getting him to come out.

It seemed compelling. He got up from his chair, and walked towards his seldom used door. He opened it and walked into the warm sunlight that he realized had come with Spring and Summer. He began to feel odd. More alive then ever before. The day whizzed by without his notice.

The sun began to set when a young girl, most likely fifteen, walked up the pathway leading to his cottage. Red adorned her outfit, and collected itself in her hair. She wore shorts as well, and her shirt was also a light red. He had a feeling he knew who she was. Her silver eyes gave it away. They shone with the idea of optimism, joy, yet serenity, mischevois yet honest, "What is your name?" He just had to ask.

The girl smiled, "my name is Autumn, I've been on a journey, I've come to meet my sisters, tell me, are you the man our great greAt great grandmother spoke of?"

Wesley smiled, "in a way. Why have you come to me, why have you done so much for me? Not anyone else?"

Winter smiled, "you must realize, since you helped our ancestor, Angela, the world has been able to carve niches out for itself. Silver eyed warriors have become the guardians of the world. Without leaving this Island, you have saved the world. We," she motioned to her sisters,

"We do what we can for others, simply because we can. It was how we were raised. Our mother, even our grandmother, always told us, one day you'll meet the Wizard, They tell us of the great things they heard from Angela, the great things Silas the wizard has done."

Wesley's face fell. I am the apprentice of Silas. He is long dead, I've lived alone, in his home, for centuries, but I have his memories I remember this woman you speak of. Were you told of the prophecy?" The girls shook their heads.

Wesley smiled sadly, "Your decendents will meet my predecessors, but they will know not the destiny they seek." The young woman, girls really, looked at him in confusion. But Welsey wasn't finished yet, "for your kind deeds, I bestow upon you, extrodinary power."

Wesley the Wizard wasn't sure what he was doing, but when he opened his eyes, having not even realized they were closed, he saw four balls of energy begin their trip. One to each girl. They all closed their eyes. One by one, they began to glow, oldest to youngest, one by one, oldest to youngest, they opened their eyes.

Winter's eyes slid open. A brilliant hue of pale blue. Spring's eyes bolted open, a beautiful shade of green. Summer's eyes opened, golden as the sun. Autumn's eyes opened, a beautiful shade of reddish brown. Like the flesh of a sequioa tree. Wesley found himself fullfilling yet another prophecy.

Winter's pale blue eyes stared at him, "we thank you."

"Do not ask me for this. Your power is your own. Please continue to use it to help others." Was all the Wizard said.

Autumn took a step forward, she couldn't be any older then sixteen, "There must be some way we can thank you." She spoke, and the Wizard turned his attention to her.

"But dear, you already have." He motioned to his garden, to himself, they had done so much. Summer stepped forward as well.

"We promise to come back once a year to visit you. Then you won't be so lonely." The wizard sighed, there was no stopping them.

He smiled, "Very well then, I will see you next year." He then watched as the girls made their way back up the path that lead away, to civilization. Once the girls had left, he recorded the information they'd given him. Vale and Vacuo had become kingdoms, and tensions were high, a war could break out any time. Faunus were gaining in numbers, and communicated with humans as equals.

Two hundred years passed, he learned the rules of the seasonal maidens. The Mountain of Knowledge, as he called it, had also become a grave yard of sorts. Marked graves told the names of his dear friends. Silas was buried in a hidden grave, close to the entrance of his masterpiece. The maidens brought the bodies of their fallen to him for burial. Burial among family.

Two hundred years had passed, and a young boy found his way to the wizzard's cottage. Sickly as he was, he learned well, and as the Wizard was coming to the end of his illongated life, it was time to find an apprentice. The boy brought him knowledge to add to the books, war had broken out among the kingdoms, it had ended with Mantle being taken over and put under martial law. It's new name was Atlas.

Another war was coming under way, Faunus and Humans were beginning to raise tensions, racism was becoming more and more common, and humans wanted to rid themselves of what they saw as dangerous superiors. Menagerie, an island to the south of Mistral seemed like a cold place to centralize these different people.

Twenty years of teaching this boy had passed, and it was time to pass the torch so to speak. He sat his apprentice down, and gave him one last lesson. The lesson that would end in his death. He only hoped young Ozpin would do okay in his place.

* * *

"Welcome to the opening day of the Vytle Festival Tournament!" Professor Port's voice rang out over the entirety of the Amity Colleseum. Crowds and crowds of people sat among the bleachers, Faunus and Human alike, cheering and yelling in exitement as two teams walked out into the middle of the colleseum.

A third year Atlesian team, against a fourth year Mistralian team. "Team LEAF of Atlas against Team LION of Mistral!"

* * *

A/N: Well that's a chapter. Yea...


	8. Cardin, Mercury Ruby, and a Bullet

A/N: Hello again! Welcome back! Did I do well on that last chapter? I figured I needed to plot out a bit of the history of Remnant, and, as it turns out, the Wizard is the only reason Remnant has a history... Also, sorry for the wait, first I got dragged into the universe of binge watching/reading Harry Potter... Everything... Then the RWBY manga called out to me just as I finished reading Erased. Also there was fairy tail to catch up on, both the manga and the anime... So yea... Writers block didn't help much at all... Also can we just marvel about the fact that Ruby doesn't wear her cape over her uniform at Beacon in the manga? Threw me for a loop in the first chapter, it looks... Weird...

* * *

RWBY

It was so long ago now. But Cardin remembered it clearly, That first week at Beacon. He had met a few kids who had ways of thinking that were just like his. That was good and all, but there was this one kid who looked really fun to pick on.

He wasn't one of those who flipped out in anger, those were even more fun, but he didn't have the strength to fight back.

Not as fun, but it made him look even better. He remembered the day they assigned lockers to all the students in Beacon. He remembered the feeling he got when he first understood the mechanism to the locker, and how to make it go anywhere he wanted to. That was when he saw his first chance. It was only after the deed was done that he realized that picking on this particular kid, had consequences.

She stood there, tiny compared to the rest of the school, but angry none the less. The amount of furious courage she had inside of her annoyed Cardin to no end. She asked with an air of authority, despite the high pitch in her juvenile voice,

"What, do you think you're doing?"

She stood, despite her short stature, tall, confident, and unamused. Her hands rested idly on her hips, she couldn't be a day older then sixteen. Couldn't be younger then that either, the thought rested idly in his mind. Her red cape rested around her, covering what appeared to be a large weapon attached to the back of her belt.

A frown adorned her silver eyes, and he noticed a blonde girl taking an interest in their altercation. Her lips moved, but he didn't care about what she spoke. That Nikos girl began talking to her anyway. Back to this strange, small girl.

"Just who do you think you are?" He asked, taking a step forward for good measure, "if I had half a mind, I'd-" he stopped. This girl took out a scythe that was almost twice her size. Now he had a better question, "what, is that?" He pointed to the weapon as its blade curled around her, like a safety zone.

"A sniper rifle." This girl's smile was obnoxious, as was her tone, but the oversized weapon curling around her gave the boy other words to say. Just to make sure he hadn't mistaken what he'd heard.

"A what?" He asked, looking at the 'sniper rifle.' So she was well suited for both close and ranged combat. Weird kid. Even weirder was her escuse for why her 'sniper rifle' took the shape of an oversized gardening tool.

"It's highly customized." She even shrugged. Did she know what family he came from? As a member of a highly classed Atlesian family, she had no right to treat him like that. But she was still talking, "however, I may have to use it. If you bother my friend again."

Her hand made a strange movement, and that blonde girl he'd dismissed frisbeed a piece of paper towards her. From behind. Good God, she had this whole thing worked out, didn't she?

Without looking, this girl moved her scythe upwards, and cleanly sliced paper in two. However, before it could so much as move an inch, her scythe came back down to its origional position, slicing the paper again. Four evenly cut, cleanly snipped pieces of paper fell to the ground.

Who was this kid?

No matter, she had made a threat, and shown she could back it up. What else could he do. And of course, there was no way he was nervous about the kid, just... Well, he'd get back to you with a different word later. Maybe.

"Yeah, yeah. You stay away from me, and I'll stay away from you." Her eyes narrowed, and Cardin hastily added, "and your friends." Before turning on his heel and walking away. His new friends followed behind him.

Pas the year wore on, the girl had become well known. Especially when news that her fifteenth birthday had come and passed. The kid was just barely fifteen. It seemed like almost every other weekend that she was getting in trouble.

then came that field trip to Forever Fall. He and his team had just found a nice clearing to hang out in, when that crazy fifteen year old came crashing in, a telltale trail of rose petals streaming out behind her. He'd once asked Goodwitch about them, the woman had hastily replied that they were a part of her semblance.

Still, the girl looked... Off. She stood frozen at the edge of the clearing, her expression mirroring that of distraught disappointment. He heard rumors that Ruby Rose had been through a few... Altercations with less then preferable people. That Rado guy being one of them.

She didn't look too good from his vantage point, and had he actually let slip that he was worried, he would've told you how she looked like she was on day five of no sleep. How she stood shakily in the middle of a puddle of rose petals. How for the first time since meeting her, she seemed out of breath.

"Whatcha doin in our little clearing?" His voice asked in a jeering manner, he couldn't admit his worry over the girl, his team would never approve. Besides, he could sense the unease of his team, they were in the presence of someone who could beat all four of them easily.

"I used to come here, with my family." Her silver eyes showed unease, fear even, as she took a step back. Cardin couldn't help but laugh. So what if he meant for it to sound cruel.

"Oh, really? Then what?" He really needed to think before he spoke, "you got too old to go on family trips?" The nonchalant answer he received would haunt him for a long time.

"No." Her voice was monotonous, almost berating in nature, "my mom died."

What do you even say to that? He was about to stutter out some uneducated answer when he felt it. Dark, cold, unforgiving. Empty and soulless. Grimm where in the shadows. Waiting. Why hadn't they attacked yet? How long had they even been there? His eyes found themselves wandering to the shadows, and indeed, movement, black and white movement could be seen in their depths.

They weren't looking at Cardin and his team though, the Rose girl was the one they were swarming around. But why? Before his question could be answered, that kid, Jaune Arc, pushed through the shrubbery. It was fairly obvious that he followed the rose petals.

"Hey Ruby! Everyone's looking for you!" Jaune locked his worried eyes with his younger friends confused ones. Cardin stared in confusion, but he didn't have enough time to wonder what was up with the RWBY/JNPR weirdness right now.

"How'd you-" his confused eyes looked up with shock as Ruby's words were cut off by a gigantic alpha Ursa. He heard his team run away, leaving him with these strange people as well as an ancient Grimm. Ruby and Jaune drew their weapons.

Cardin was about to do so as well, but the Ursa's huge paw smacked into him with the force of a freight train, sending him flying. He felt his aura deplete in that hit. As the fight between the Ursa went on, Cardin watched Ruby get taken out. Then, something terrifying happened. Rose petals started to swirl around the entire clearing in a wild flurry.

He was not staying in the vicinity for this. He struggled to his feet, and fled in the direction of his team, right past Pyrrah Weiss and Ren. This was two times Ruby Rose had shown herself to be... Weird...

So, that Friday, as he stood in the practice rink across from her, he knew he didn't have a chance at winning. If he did nock her out, her semblance would in turn take him out. If was a loose/loose situation. It didn't matter though, because the tournament was starting today. Right after lunch in fact. This was the last practice they would get.

The rules were simple, when one the persons aura is below seventy, they loose. This gives them enough time to replenish before the first match of the day. He knew he was going to loose.

The kid looked a lot better then the last time he'd has interactions with her though. Her confidence was back, whereas the last time he'd spoken with her, her negative emotions had dragged Grimm from the depths, today she just stood, staring at him with her silver eyes.

"Stop when your meter reaches seventy." Glynda reiterated, but Cardin already knew that. Ruby nodded. Still wasn't much of a talker anymore, but it didn't matter, she was going down.

The infernal whistle blew, and Ruby lunged into a cloud of rose petals. Cardin readied his mace. She reappeared in a new cloud of rose petals, as though she'd teleported, and slammed her scythe into him. He just barely blocked with his mace, but he felt his aura deplete slightly.

He jumped back and away from her deadly cutting device. Ruby wasted no time in rushing forwards to attack him again. He was doing well all things considered, lasting longer then ever before. Two minutes in, and he was still at eighty five percent. However, one wrong move cost him dearly, one missed block cost him the match.

But then, that's always how it ended with Ruby Rose. His aura nocked to sixty seven, and the match ended. Ruby gave him a small smile before he roughly turned on his heel, catching a glance at her aura meter. Eighty nine percent. He'd nocked a good lot of Ruby's aura down for a first year.

Though any student over year three could easily beat the girl, people with less training would have to work much, much harder. Although, while other people had grown in leaps and bounds during the sparring matches at Beacon, Ruby had remained fairly stagnant. The only thing she got better at fighting was Grimm.

She could easily dispatch hordes upon hordes of the creatures of darkness, while others slowly ran out of aura. She had an exponential amount of aura it seemed, but only when fighting Grimm. If anything, her sparring matches against people were getting worse.

But no matter, she had her ways of beating much stronger people, her team. She easily took over a field from a sniper's perch. In practice matches for the school, she easily took out members of the other team, as long as she stayed hidden. Her skill improved, true, but her ability to take an attack from another humans had not.

Teachers always skirted questions about it when asked, but Cardin liked to think that he didn't particularly care.

* * *

Ruby understood from the moment she realized she could wield a scythe. Of course, she was extremely proficient with almost every weapon, barring Yang's gauntlets. But a scythe wasn't meant for fighting humans.

The mark of a reaper. Whatever was hit with her weapon full force, should, could, and most likely is meant to die. The overgrown gardening tool. The destroyer of the soulless.

Of course she could fight people with her weapon, but her aim to kill was reserved for the creatures of darkness. God forbid the day she killed someone. Nora had told her about her and Ren's adventure to their hometown, including how it had ended. Nora still beat herself up about it.

And Ruby understood that. Taking a life bore a heavy tole on the one stealing it away. If it didn't, then there was something wrong. Her scythe was only meant to kill the murderous creatures. The ones without a soul, born from the shadows, and bred by negativity.

Only issue was, Ruby had an inkling that this wasn't where the Grimm truly origionated from. Things just didn't add up. Sure, she could get the drawn to negative emotions thing, even been on the receiving end of that one.

But something about her made the Grimm act strangely.

On Patch, Grimm were a rare occurrence. Almost never daring to cross the oceans and breach the shores of the island. The Xiao Long-Rose household was about a half a mile away from their closest neighbor. The saying was that you've got to be far enough away to not see the house, but close enough to see the chimney smoke.

Or, God forbid, hear a scream.

There was an old woman that lived close the the edge of the port town of Patch. You see, on this island, everyone knows everyone else. Six degrees of separation, is one degree. There is no in between.

This woman was old. And it wasn't rocket science to figure out that she was, to an extant, crazy. She was an artist though, so, to an extant, it was to be expected. Ruby used to see her sitting on a garden nome, it's hat had been broken off, and it's hollow insides stuffed with wool from her sheep, drawing, sketching, painting, or carving replicas of the flowers in her garden.

Ruby had once asked her to draw a rose.

The woman had told her, as she was drawing the seven year old's rose, about how Grimm had began showing up soon after the girl was born.

Ruby had gone home with the beautiful picture that when slightly modified, would become her emblem, and asked her father about the Grimm. He never gave her a strait answer.

Qrow hadn't seemed surprised when he, and his youngest niece, figured out that Ruby was meant to wield a scythe. He seemed to know something she didn't. And after all, he never gave her a strait answer on wether or not he'd ever killed someone. He'd claimed that his scythe was meant to collect those who had no soul, or were too corrupt to seem human anymore.

That thought unnerved Ruby. What if she ever came across someone as bad as that. Someone like the one who'd laid waste to Ren and Nora's hometown all those years ago. The reaper, a terrifying title. A title that Ruby bore proudly, but humbly. No matter how much she dreaded it, no matter how many anxiety attacks she got from the idea, she knew the day would come when she would have to kill someone.

She hated that part of her job. They tell you huntresses are supposed to protect civilization from anything threatening it. Lately, Ruby had realized that humans threatened other humans almost as much as the Grimm did.

For a week the tournament had been under way. Yang and Weiss were down in the rink, facing off with two members of team FNKY. Ruby really couldn't place why her anxiety had started to peak lately, but she felt odd, as though things were about to reach a climax. As though something really bad was going to happen.

Ruby almost always could have full and complete trust in her anxiety attacks. Sometimes though, they were just her being paranoid. There was that one time she had barged into their dorm on Weiss, who was studying, and claimed to be bored. She wanted someone to talk with, get her mind off a worthless foreboding feeling.

But Ruby being Ruby, she ended up going full Koiking on Weiss' desk, Freaking out the pale girl and tiring herself out in the process. It was totally worth it though. The look of pure confused terror on Weiss' face, coupled with the look of confusion on Blake, who had just walked in with Yang. Yang just had a look of 'oh come on, not this again...'

Back in the present, Ruby let out a harsh gasp next to Blake when Weiss dragged her opponent into a volcano-like spout. Her aura depleted, and the beep sounded. It was all up to Yang now.

* * *

Yang did it. In her own words, she had beat the FuN out of team FNKY.

Her eyes switched from a deep shade of scarlet back to a light shade of purple when she remembered Weiss. She ran towards her fallen teammate just and Ruby and Blake were allowed onto the field.

"You okay?" Yang asked her teammate, helping her to sit up.

Weiss coughed, then wheezed her answer, "I don't think I'll be singing for a while..."

Yang just laughed.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Rose petals settled on the ground, and Ruby was sitting there, looking worriedly at Weiss. Weiss just smiled as Blake cut in,

"Great job you two!" She gave Weiss a smile as well.

* * *

Ozpin often wondered it he'd made the right choice in leaving Patch all those years ago. So far he'd told no one about where the hidden the records of the history of Remnant lay. But he'd yet to choose a successor. He was still young for a wizard thoug, so he was in no hurry.

He'd thought about choosing Qrow. But something didn't seem right. Something had told him not to. Someone else was meant to be his successor.

There were a few candidates at this moment in time. But only one seemed right. Ozpin however. Felt that he should wait a bit, after all, the correct successor might not even be born for another century.

Ozpin looked out at the city. He remembered a time when his passed mentor, or maybe even the one before that, had heard of a village called Vale that was struggling to stay afloat in a world infested by Grimm. How much Vale had grown, he wished hismentor coulee seem it.

He looked passed the city below him. Out over the ocean. It felt so wrong being so far away from the secret legacy of the wizzard. But too many people lived on Patch now. He could see it on the horizon. It was too dangerous to the safety of the past to stay on Patch.

 _Why do you insist on sitting all high and mighty? In your chair in the clouds. Is the old Wizzard's cabin too good for you now?_

A taunting voice that could only be heard by him. He wasn't insane mind you. "If I didn't know any better Salem, I'd think you were jealous." Ozpin spoke aloud, a smile flitting the edges of his lips.

 _Only in your dreams. You've no clue what's going to happen. I hold all the cards, Ozpin? Is it? Your name changes so often Silas._

Ozpin smiled again, "Silas you say, glad to know you remember a dear friend. I was beginning to think you were heartless. Oh, wait." An angered yell vibrated through his head, but Ozpin knew better then to flinch.

Salem was almost completely powerless, but she could still bring about the destruction of humanity. One could only imagine what it was like when she was at full power.

Shaking his head, Ozpin turned back to the screens on his desk. Team RWBY had won their match. They would be going to the finals. Salem's voice rang in his head, reminding him that she could see what was happening in the world too,

 _It can only go downhill from here._

 _"_ You know, I always wondered how you managed to get through the natural barriers of Patch. How much stored energy did that cost, I wonder?"

 _You only wish to know so you can create better walls around your pitiful civilization._

"And if that is my plan?"

 _Your plan matters not to me, in the end, I will be the victor._

"Fallen Ones can never be victorious for more then three days."

 _Words of whom?_

"Someone you'll never understand."

 _Try me, oh great wizard._

It's sarcasm was not lost on Ozpin.

* * *

"The full-history-of-Remnant is largely a mystery-to-us today."

Professor Ooblek zoomed around his classroom, students from all four schools struggled to follow him as usual. However, the Beacon students seemed much calmer then the others, who all seemed completely confused.

"However! We can gather from legends-that-Remnant was not-always filled-with-Grimm."

His words often ran together, and many students wondered if the man ever took a breath when lecturing.

Under the title of Grimm on Remnant, Ruby drew a young Beowolf, inside a circle with a slash mark through it. She then looked up to find her teacher sitting, cross legged, on top of his desk.

"However, we do not know for sure if we can trust most of the outlandish tales from Remnant's past."

Ruby drew a large bubble-ified question mark ect to the slash-circled Grimm.

"There exists-a-legend of a young-woman." He paused and disapeared, only to reappear in front of Jaune, "a-woman who-became corrupt-in-her search to find eternal-life." He disappeared again, and reappeared in frong of Ruby, "they say-that-she is the beginning of-the Grimm."

He flitted away again, and continued, "in the days of this woman, we have no idea what the world might have looked like." He disappeared from in front of Cardin, and reappeared in the middle of the classroom.

"We do not even know if a world such as this even existed before the Grimm. No known artifacts have survived from a time before the Grimm." Despite the speed at which his voice left his mouth, most of the students followed along in deep interest.

Emerald raised her hand from her seat next to Ruby, "why did the woman want to become immortal?" She questioned her teacher, avoiding her teammate Mercury's eye.

Ooblek thought a moment. "Legends-in-Atlas tell us that she was a sickly woman searching for-a-way to live forever. However, Mistralian legends say she was simply terrified-of-growing-old. We may never-know for sure."

Unfortunetly for the teacher though, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. But the teacher wasn't finished yet, "who knows, hidden somewhere, records of a time-so-long ago may still-exist."

He raised his voice and finished his lecture, "pages-203-212-class! Summarize-these-pages-in-an-essay, and turn-it-in-next class!" He then zoomed out through the door he always left open.

Emerald turned to Ruby, "well, I've got to go finish some last minute homework before the tournament starts today. See ya then?"

Ruby nodded with a wide smile on her face, "see ya at six then!" The young girl shouted, with a wave of her hand.

Emerald walked off, joining up with her teammate before leaving the classroom. Yang walked over to where Ruby was putting her notebook into her bag. The finals round started at six, and Ruby had decided to send Yang through them. It was two thirty, they had about three hours before the finals.

To put it lightly, Yang looked pumped.

* * *

Yang stood in the rink. Next to her were all the other students from across the world. Each one of them had made their way to becoming a finalist. And her match was decided. She would be fighting Emerald's teammate, Mercury. They may have made good friends with her little sister, but Yang didn't trust them.

So she stood, as all the other finalists made their way out of the rink, waiting for her match to begin.

Suddenly, it seemed, it had.

Mercury was on his hands in an instant, shooting rounds of highly dense dust into the air, and swinging his feet around to propel them faster around himself.

He shot a few at Yang, who mostly dogged, and punched the last one back in his direction.

"Woah! It looks like these two are fairly matched!" Professor Port yelled from his place next to Ooblek, who added,

"Yes Peter, it seems these two are perfect matches for-our first round!"

Mercury lunged towards Yang, who grabbed his leg before he could shoot any dust, and swung him into the ground. He got back up before you could say 'semblance' and tried a different approach,

"Miss Xiao Long appears to be using her opponents speed against him."

"Yes, a-nice surprise considering her-usual-fighting style."

Mercury tried a full on lunge towards the girl, and got a good kick in. Yang flew backwards before catching herself.

Ooblek and Port seemed content to keep quiet about the semblance for now.

Yang flew towards Mercury at a much faster pace then moments before, and punched him away. He flew backwards about twenty feet before regaining his footing.

He ran towards her, but just as he reached her, Yang shot a round of dust at him, counteracting his own, and causing an explosion.

Yang was out of reach from the flames, but Mercury's aura went down exponentially. Yang at eighty two, Mercury at sixty four. The latter of the two stood up and circled Yang. Yang watched.

"It seems these two are scouting each other out, looking for an opening."

"Yes Peter, and what a fight it will be, when one of them finds one."

Mercury lunged. Yang's perceived open spot was a decoy, as the brawler hit him away, blowing a round of dust into his chest as she did so.

Mercury flew into the wall of the stadium, a glimmer of gray colored aura showing he had completely depleted his reserve. The crowd erupted into cheers as Yang processed the fact that she'd won.

"Well then, that settles it, Yang Xiao Long has beaten Mercury Brown!" Port yelled over the loud speaker.

"It appeared That Miss Xiao Long is approaching Mr. Brown." Ooblek observed as the crowd watched Yang help Ruby's friend to his feet.

"And they're even shaking hands-" the crowd let out a shocked roar of discontent when Mercury suddenly kicked upwards and shot at Yang with his boots.

A strange ammo that he hadn't used during his fights flew strait into Yang's stomach. With her aura lowered, she didn't stand a chance. While her power went up, her aura dropped into the red as she flew away from a grinning Mercury Black.

"Cut the feed! Cut the feed!" Yelled Port as Ooblek got up and ran out of the room, presumably to check on Yang. Atlesian soldiers surrounded Mercury as the rest of team RWBY got up from their chairs and ran down to the rink.

Yang struggled to her feet as Professor Ooblek appeared next to her. Fiery pain erupted in her stomach, and she looked down, a circle of red was slowly growing near her abdomin.

"Miss Xiao Long, please sit back down." Ooblek stated as the girl stumbled,

"What kinda dust was that...?" She asked, finally sinking down to the ground as RWB ran up to her. Ruby stared at Mercury who continued his glare, only this time strait at the reaper.

She broke eye contact with him and bent down towards Yang. The feed had cut, but patrons were refusing to leave the stands. Paramedics rushed in as Mercury was lead out.

"Go back to the dorm," Ruby told her team, "I need to call my Dad." The group nodded, and as the ambulance-bull head closed with Yang inside, Ruby ran off to call her father.

* * *

"Hey Dad..." Ruby tried, and failed to sound upbeat. Good thing since her father's voice could be heard through her scroll, loud, clear, and worried,

"Ruby!? Are you alright!? Is Yang okay!?" Tai yelled. Qrow's voice could be heard in the background, and with a pang, Ruby realized that Tai was in Vale.

"I-I don't know..." Ruby whispered into the phone. And Tai could be heard again, until Qrow stole the phone from him. He was spouting jibberish anyways,

"Ruby," her uncle spoke calmly, "We're about twenty minutes from the hospital, forty minutes from Beacon, where did they take Yang?" He asked, and Ruby, on the brink of tears, realized that she didn't know.

"I-I don't know," her words were streaming out faster then ever, "It wasn't d-dust, it was tiny and silver and Yang's bleeding! And and-"

Qrow cut her off, "Ruby, I want you to go find Ozpin."

"What?"

"Just go, we're going to find him too, we'll meet up with you."

Ruby nodded before realizing they couldn't see her, "okay." Her voice whispered, then Qrow hung up the scroll. Ruby stared around the hallway of the Amity Colleseum before walking towards the entrance. She was to busy wondering why her dad and Qrow wanted her to go to Ozpin at a time like this. The last this she was expecting was Emerald to run up to her.

"Ruby!"

The green haired girl yelled, stopping her run next to her.

"Is Yang okay?"

Ruby skirted the question, "Why would Mercury do that? What was that?"

Emerald shrugged, a look of worry on her face, along with really well faked anger, "I can believe he did it either, I refuse to talk to him." Emerald sighed as the two walked towards an airship.

Ruby got on it, but Emerald didn't, "Professor Port wants to ask me questions, I have to go."

The door closed behind Ruby, and she sat down in a lonely corner of the airship to Beacon.

* * *

Ruby stood in front of the CCT tower, staring up at it. It was highly likely that her father and uncle were already at the top with Ozpin, waiting for her.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby entered the building and walked into the elevator. She only pressed one button, and stood there waiting with apprehension.

After a minute or two, the door opened with an audible "bing" and Ruby could see Tai and Qrow, with their backs to her, talking to a worried looking Ozpin.

At the sound of the elevator, the men turned around to look at her. Tai stared at her for only a moment before running to her and crushing her in a hug harder then Yang's. When he let go, Qrow put a hand on her shoulder as Ozpin spoke.

"It is most unfortunate for Yang. However, with the proper treatment, she should be fine." He looked down at Ruby, expecting her to ask a question, which she did.

"Professor, what was that? What hit Yang I mean."

The man gave a weak smile, "an ancient technology, before any of our times. It's called a bullet if I recall correctly. It bypasses aura completely, and can be a fatal weapon if used correctly. Dust is much more effective against Grimm, but in the time before Grimm, humans only fought themselves."

Ruby stared up at him, then nodded. Tai however, would not take this situation lightly, "How did that kid have it? And why!?"

Ozpin sighed, "I too, would like to know that, but we are still questioning Mercury Brown. You three should go see Yang." He spoke in a soft tone to Tai, seemingly calming the man's nerves.

Qrow kept his hand on his niece's shoulder as the three turned to leave the office.

* * *

Yang opened her eyes to find a blurry, bright, white room. A hospital. But why was she in a hospital? Oh wait, that strange thing Mercury had shot at her. What even was that thing? Yang turned her eyes away from the white ceiling and looked at the sickly white walls.

She hated hospitals. Sharp red and black contrasted against the harsh white of the room. Ruby sat there, on the edge of sleep.

"Ruby?" Yang asked, why did her stomach hurt so much?

Ruby's eyes shot open, "Yang!" She yelled, jumping from her seat, "Are you okay, does it hurt? That ball-let hit you right here," she motioned to her stomach area. That explained the pain. But what on God's green earth was a ball-let?

She didn't have much time to ponder, because Qrow entered through the door.

"Hey Firecracker, how ya feeling?" He asked, sitting in a chair next to the one Ruby had been in moments before.

She shrugged, "kinda sore." He smiled.

"It'll feel like that for an hour or two, before your aura finishes healing it. Yang nodded before asking her own question,

"what's a ball-let?" She asked, giving him a strange look.

Qrow sighed, "bullet, it's kind of like a cylinder made of steel, but much more complex. Doesn't work much against Grimm, but it's ancient, from the time before Grimm, actually."

Yang gave him a quizzical look, that explained almost nothing. Just one more question though,

"When can I leave?" Well maybe two. Yang's eyes widened when she thought of something,

"What about the tournament?" She asked, a look of worry painted on her face.

Qrow smiled, then addressed one question at a time, "you can leave when the soreness completely goes away. The doctors want to fully understand what happened to you, so they can prepare for any other instance in which a bullet is used. As for the tournament, you should be fine by tomorrow, your next match isn't till tomorrow night anyways."

Yang nodded, so she could go home in a few hours. Good thing, she hated hospitals.

* * *

A/N: yeah, yeah... Short chapter I know, but I really wanted to get this out before I go on a family trip for a week, so bear with my crazy hair brained theory about the first RWBY song we ever heard.

The blood of Pyrrha is Red like roses and fills Ruby's dreams, leading her on a trail to her attacker, in Haven.

Weiss is cold and always yearning, to leave her home, where she has been trapped like nothing more then an asset.

Blake the Faunus descends into shadow, but must acend from its darkness to find her way again.

Yang has been beaten down, but somewhere inside her, her courage still burns like gold.

The song has been telling us about the split of team RWBY since day one. Okay... Bye now. Why are you even still here? Chapter is over, see ya later!


	9. The Grimm, the White Fang, and Anarchy

I'm A/N: welcome back!

* * *

 _How did you like seeing ancient technology make a comeback?_

 _Just imagine the terror when word gets out that the bullet is meant to kill humans._

 _Like puny ants, you will all scatter, and the Wizard will return to Patch alone, having failed humanity once again._

 _I wonder how his power will evolve this time._

"I still have faith in the lives of the people."

 _The people who's lives you control, manipulate, and change._

 _That is your power, **great wizard.** What you truly are, is a fool. _

_All th_ _e way back to the first wizard, Enoch._

 _The wizard of Noah, who tried to save himself from the downfall of his time._

 _And the son of his son, his descendent, the wizard Silas, who manipulated his powers to help humanity._

 _All the way to you, who finally used the powers in the ways of Enoch and Noah._

 _Unlike them, you will fail._

"There is no way to fail. The choices humanity makes, are its own. The choices you made, Salem, were your own. You have only yourself to blame for your state."

 _Is it evil to want to live forever?_

 _To want to rule over all?_

 _To be scared of death?_

 _To want power?_

"To live forever is to leave behind humanity, if you do so, you have no right to rule over all, just as death is a gateway to eternity, you have no reason to fear it, and you sought power that was not yours to take.

You have won battles Salem, but even your wins have been calculated against you.

In the end, because in giving up humanity, you gave up your death, you will cease to exist, you walking corpse."

Ozpin opened his eyes. He was done talking with Salem, it was a lost cause. He looked out the window of his tower.

It was true, the bullet was back, and with it came fear. Salem's followers must have recived the knowledge from her, a new way to lure Grimm into the city, a new plan of destruction.

There was much more Salem was planning, the two chess masters would one day face off, but Ozpin would not be the chess master of humanity at that point.

He knew it would be his successor, he had grown along in years, and Salem had reached immortality, at the cost of her humanity.

He knew his tower would fall, and he would need to get to Patch in order to preserve the world. His apprentice would find him there. Maybe.

It could turn out completely different then what he was planning. But then, chess is about the twists and turns, the unsuspected moves were what made the game interesting, if not agrivating.

He sat up in his chair, today's first match would be Pyrrah Nikos and Penny Paladina, and the match had just begun.

Today was also the day Amber's life support would run out.

Today was the day Ozpin dreaded.

High above the top of his tower, Amity Colleseum floated lazily in the sky.

In it sat Ruby, and team JNR, their P stood down below them in the rink, looking ready for action.

Emerald sat on the other side of the Colleseum, even though the rest of her team had gone back to Haven, she had told Ruby that she wanted to catch the rest of the tournament in person, and that she might never get another chance to do so.

Mercury was the exception, according to Ironwood, he'd broken out of custody, and disapeared, his team had no idea where he was.

Down in the arena, Pyrrah battled Penny. That's when Ruby's sniper skills noticed Emerald's soft red eyes flash a deep sharp scarlet red, like that of a bleeding rose. Ruby immidietly looked down into the arena,

"Oh no..." She whispered, and stood up. Despite Jaune yelling out her name to get her to stop, she bolted down the nearest hallway and into the staff area.

Once there, she stopped cold.

Mercury, fugitive and all, stood before her, arms crossed and a smile on his face.

"Mercury?" She asked, he continued to smile at her, wide and unsettling.

She recognized the look.

It was similar to that of Rado.

It was disturbing.

"What are you doing here?" She yelled, before realizing she was loosing time. She tried to go around him.

He blocked her path.

"Alright, fine." She stated, and started zigzagging from left to right. She used her semblance in her newfound way. Moving quickly through the air instead of the ground.

She was nearing a clear way past Mercury when seemingly out of nowhere, He lifted his foot and slammed it into the soft flesh of Ruby's stomach.

He shot a round of dust through the weapon that was his shoe.

With a sharp yelp, Ruby flew backwards.

She hit the ground with a large thud and sat up. She looked to where Mercury was still standing, arms crossed, and that horrifying smile still wide on his face.

Thinking fast, she pulled out her scroll, team JNPR was closest to her, as well as SSSN and CFVY, so she dialed Jaune's number.

A shooting sound was heard. A bullet flew out of Mercury's left boot.

It flew strait at Ruby, and hit her scroll. The scroll flew out of her hand, breaking into pieces upon impact with the ground.

Ruby's attention shot up at her attacker. The boy she had once considered a friend stared down at her with a heartless stare.

"Mercury, why?"

Mercury stared at her, "I prefer to win." Was the only thing he said before walking towards her.

Ruby scrambled to her feet, turned around, and sped towards the door.

She could hear the shots coming from both of Mercury's boots. One shooting bullets and another shooting dust.

She was close to the door, and running as fast as she could.

Rose petals scattered across the floor of the hallway, but as Ruby neared the entrance, she noticed another person there. Green hair, and red eyes. Emerald stood in the doorway.

Ruby skidded to a halt in front of her friend, rose petals flying out from behind her as the wind she'd created rushed past her. Emerald hardly flinched.

"Emerald?" Ruby asked, before peering behind her.

Mercury stood there, in all his glory.

"Emerald, what's going on?" She pleaded with the girl she called a friend, but the green haired teen said nothing to her.

"She really wants a little kid cause she has 'special' eyes?" Emerald wasn't talking to Ruby, she was looking past the fifteen year old and towards Mercury.

Ruby stared back and forth between the two in confusion. 'Special eyes?' What did that mean?

Mercury shrugged.

Ruby had to get out of this situation. Her saving grace was when she tuned back into the conversation between the people she decided were not her friends.

An argument had somehow sparked.

Emerald had even taken a few steps away from to door in her anger.

Ruby inched towards the unguarded door.

At the last second, she burst through the door and ran down the hallway. They wouldn't attack with so many witnesses around. She ran towards the stands.

Ruby froze the moment she saw the outcome of the battle. The reason why everything was quiet, the reason why the only sounds to be heard were Ooblek's voice yelling those familiar words,

"Kill-the-Feed!"

Her world slowed down. For the first time in a very long time for Ruby, time seemed to crawl at the speed of a snail.

She fell to the ground, not even thinking.

Her only thoughts were on the fact that her friend, someone she'd opened up to, someone who'd confided her biggest secret in her, was laying in pieces on the floor of the ring.

Her other friend stood in horrified shock, swaying unsteadily on her feet at the sight. Green eyes dilated in her oun distraught.

Ruby stared at the ground, numb to the world around her, tears streaming out of her eyes.

Had they not been hidden by her hair, anyone who looked close enough would've seen a flash of silver light every so often.

Down in the tower below, Ozpin stared at his screen in horror.

This girl from Atlas was a robot?

Ironwood had indeed been experimenting with aura.

The screens turned red. Ozpin's memories flew into the past. All the way back to Silas.

Screens turned red, people lost control over their own technology, a message of war was given, and Grimm destroyed the entire civilized world.

Ozpin stared in shock as a voice of a woman began to speak,

"This, is not a tragedy, this is what happens when you trust those with the same amount of power as you, if not less. You put your trust in men who think they have so much power, but are in fact, just men."

The voice paused, and Ozpin tightened his hold on his cane. So many huntsman and huntresses had lost their lives, even their freedom to this never ending war. Trapped in a place where the passage of time froze, where clocks lay stagnant.

The voice of Salem's follower continued,

"One man was audacious enough to not only control the kingdom, but the protectors of the kingdom as well. You all choose to look the other way as he takes control of an unsuspecting kingdom."

A hint of anger resounded in the voice of the woman,

"Why, I ask you all, did Atlas feel the need to create a robot masquerading as a young girl? Do the Grimm even know the difference?"

An err of defiance arose in the woman's voice, and in the distance, the calls of airborn Grimm could be heard,

"So, as you find yourselves in a never ending night, forced into hiding by things that want nothing more then to kill you, who do you trust? Where do your loyalties lie?"

The screen returned from its deep red to normal hues of blue.

But the silence lasted for only a few minutes.

* * *

In her dorm, Yang heard the cries of Grimm.

Frantically she turned on her scroll. She tried to tune into the channel playing the tournament, but all she heard was,

"Where do your loyalties lie?" Before a red screen turned back to the screen of cut feed from amity Colleseum.

Thats when the beeping sounded.

* * *

Blake and Weiss sat in a cafe, Weiss' coffee sat untouched on the table, Blake's tea was in her frozen hand.

Both drinks had long since cooled down.

The girls weren't paying attention to their drinks though, their eyes had been glued to the screen above them since the moment one of their closest friends had been torn apart.

Then that woman had started speaking on the screen.

Then the beeping sounded.

* * *

"Pyrrah!" Jaune yelled.

It wasn't her fault, he had to get down to her!

The beeping began as he banged on the shield separating him from his teammate.

Ren, Nora, Coco, Sun, Neptune, and the rest of their teams stared in shock, until Ren looked up towards the sky, Yatsuhashi doing the same.

High above them, large Grimm could be seen, flying down towards Amity Colleseum.

The beeping sounded all around them, but with the current situation, it seemed to fade into the background.

* * *

Qrow and Tai were sitting in the Qrow bar, both stared up at the screen in shock, the beeping began to sound.

"You go help people get to a safe place, I'll go find Ozpin!" Qrow yelled, at his old friend before running out of the bar. Tai looked at the bartender, who stared back at him in confusion.

"Find Ruby and Yang!" He yelled after his old partner, who rounded the corner.

"Got it!" The voice of Qrow sounded, before a flash was vaugly seen, and a crow flew by the entrance in the opposite direction.

* * *

Glynda was running as fast as she could towards the tower when a crow started to fly alongside her. A flash could be seen before Qrow was running next to her,

"What'd'ya think Oz is goin to do?" Qrow asked as they entered the building.

"Do we want to know?" Was Glynda's answer as the two stepped into the elevator.

All the while, the computerized voice commanded people everywhere to stay calm.

* * *

Ozpin watched the Grimm fly by, he wasn't planning this, he needed to choose a successor from a living generation.

He needed to do it fast. Of three people, he had two good candidates.

But one definetly wasn't ready.

The other, was Qrow.

He didn't have the time to tell him everything though. He just needed to cement the link.

Right on que, Qrow and Glynda rushed into his office. His screens had long since been muted,

"Oz, what do we-"

"Glynda, get to the city, set up a safe zone, Qrow, come with me!" His voice was loud, boarder line angry.

Qrow and Glynda shared a look before Ozpin yelled again,

"Hurry!"

Glynda turned on her heel and left the room, taking the elevator down. Ozpin sat down in his chair and put his head in his hands. By normal standards, he was old, but by Wizard's standards, he was still the youngest since Enoch.

"The legend of the Maidens, we both know it well." He looked up at Qrow, who stared down at him in confusion.

Grimm were attacking Vale, Pyrrah Nikos had just killed someone, granted if it wasn't a robot, Aura would've been sufficient protection. People were dying as the two spoke, but regardless, Qrow nodded.

"Have you ever wondered what happened to the Wizard?"

Qrow seemed confused by this question, and crossed his arms over his chest,

"I always assumed he died or something." Qrow's speech pattern sounded remarkably like Ruby's, reminding Ozpin of the true family relations.

"Would you believe me if I told you I was the wizard?" Ozpin asked, eyes trained on the face of the person he'd just chosen to succeed him.

Should Salem capture him, his power would transfer as though he was dead. If he was killed, his power would also transfer, you know, because of the whole death thing.

"Oz-"

Ozpin cut him off yet again.

"How old do you think I am, Qrow?" He looked up at Qrow in curiosity, and Qrow shrugged,

"I dunno, fifty, sixty?" Qrow hazarded a guess.

Qrow himself was almost thirty-five, Summer would be thirty-four, had she not disapeared at twenty-two years old.

Tai and Raven were close to the same age as well, being the same age group was lucky considering Beacon excepted students at all ages above sixteen, mostly seventeen, sixteen if you skipped a grade, Ruby was an anomaly.

Summer had been sixteen, Tai had been eighteen, Raven was Qrow's twin sister, though Qrow always liked to boast that he was older by three days... People always got really confused by that.

Ozpin smiled slightly in amusement,

"No, much older then that," he paused, taking in Qrow's surprise, "around one-hundred and fifty-two years old actually."

Qrow opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again, his face taking on a look of utter bewilderment.

"I'm not the origional Wizard, or even the second, far from it actually. I'm also not the oldest Wizard," Qrow gave a weak smile, and Ozpin continued,

"The way things are going now, I may stay the youngest." Ozpin stood up,

"As it stands now, I may stay the youngest. And you may take my place."

Qrow froze, and held a hand out, his arms still mainly crossed over his chest,

"Hold on, Grimm are attacking the city, Amber is about to die, Salem and her cronies are about to destroy the kingdom, and we're talking about ancient powers that I may or may not get!?"

"Qrow!" The younger man stopped in his rant, and looked at the older man in question, ignoring the loud sounds of the Grimm, right outside their window,

"Do you understand what this means!? Silver eyes, a power given by the Wizard, manipulated by the wizard, and modified into maidens, combined with the very power that made it!?

Wether or not you want this power, if it doesn't fall into your hands, the only other elegable person who will treat this power correctly, isn't even ready for the power in the first place!"

Qrow stopped, and looked at the man in question, "Who, are these people?" He asked, and Ozpin sighed,

"James Ironwood will not use the power correctly, you know that, and Jaune Arc is just not ready." Ozpin sighed. Then he turned his eyes out to the window,

"So, will you take up the torch if and when I am through?"

Qrow gave a soft groan before answering,

"Yes, I will." His eyes dropped to the floor.

Ozpin drew his eyes away from the window, "Good, now, please go join up with Glynda, and take those contacts out and use that power of yours for once."

* * *

Ruby sat on the ground, the woman's broadcasted message had stopped long ago, and tears streamed out of her eyes.

The beeping stirred her into action.

Getting to her feet, Ruby stood shakily, she looked down into the ring below her.

She looked up at the shielded roof above her. An ancient Nevermore was banging on the strong dust powered shield.

She looked down again, Pyrrah was swaying on her own feet, her eyes had never left the severed remaines of a robot that had been so alive. Ruby looked up at the Nevermore again, the shield broke.

Ruby disapeared, rose petals scattering.

* * *

Pyrrah hadn't moved since the moment Penny had been killed by her own weapon.

The girl had seemed so alive, so naïve, so, motivated.

They had fought, and she'd seemed so courageous, so excitable, then, in that moment, when her swords had multiplied by the hundreds, she adjusted her semblance accordingly.

She never expected the cords that controlled Penny's weapons to slice her in pieces.

She never expected that she would be pitted against a robot.

She never expected to watch a person her age die.

She stood staring at the mangled remains of someone who she knew hung out with Ruby a lot.

Oh God.

Ruby.

What would her younger friend think?

Would she hate her?

Pyrrah didn't want one of her only friends to hate her.

Her hand covered her mouth and tears began to form in her eyes.

She heard banging above her, but she didn't care enough to look.

She heard someone yelling her name, but she didn't care enough to listen.

This... Thing, seemed so alive, so, human...

Had she murdered someone?

Did this girl have an aura?

She had an aura meter.

A shriek from a Grimm she just realized was there could be heard.

Pyrrah looked up.

Flying down out of the broken barrier was an ancient Nevermore.

It was flying strait towards her.

 **Move!**

Her mind shouted at her,

 **Pick up your weapons and fight!**

Pyrrah Nikos did not move.

she couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't.

 **It's going to kill you!**

Pyrrah Nikos stood in her place, staring up at the Grimm in horror. It was going to kill her.

 **Run.**

She stared up at it,

 **Run!**

It screeched and wind whipped her hair.

To her own disgust, she watched the remains of Penny Palindina slide across the floor.

She never noticed her leader running towards her, they both flew backwards from the blast of air.

Jaune stood up quickly, but Pyrrah stayed in her sitting position.

 **Get up and RUN!**

She did not move.

Rose petals flew strait past her, a moving flash of red, Ruby Rose was flying strait through the air towards the Grimm.

* * *

Ruby Rose was proficient with almost every type of weapon imaginable.

Except for a mace. An early version of Crescent Rose was more like her uncle's weapon, part sword as well.

But the sword didn't feel right in the end.

Didn't mean she wasn't good at wielding it.

And as the observers of the tournament weren't allowed to carry weapons, one of Penny's swords would have to do.

Ruby had also grasped the new aspect of her semblance and had become very adept at traveling through the air as well as on the ground.

The thought had occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, she could change directions in midair.

But these were all things that were far from the mind of Ruby Rose as she picked up a sword belonging to her dead friend, and flew through the air at incredible speed, slamming the sword into the face of the Grimm threatening her other friend.

She twisted it into the black, soulless flesh of the Nevermore before ripping the sword out of the bird Grimm, and landing on the ground, between a compromised Pyrrah, a nervousness Jaune, and a dangerous creature.

She held the sword just the way her uncle had taught her, she yelled in a shaky, tear driven voice, filled with unbridled anger,

"Leave her ALONE!" She yelled, and watched the bird take flight.

She angled the sword just as her uncle had taught her, keeping an eye on the bird as it circled her and her friends.

Flashes of metal could then be heard and seen, zooming in through the broken barrier.

Ruby stared at them past the sword in confusion, the bird fell out of the sky, and teams upon teams jumped over the railing and bypassed the broken barrier, retrieving their weapons.

SSSN, CFVY, JN(P)R, FNKY, NDGO, all her friends that she'd made stood before her, all retrieving weapons from the lockers they'd used as weapons.

Ruby watched in awe as the Nevermore tried to get back up.

It's massive body shuddering in the closest thing to pain it could feel, and within seconds, all the students, working as one unit, defeated something even seasoned hunters wouldn't take on alone.

With the pressing danger out of the way, Ruby turned to Pyrrah and Jaune. Jaune backed off so Ruby could speak to the girl.

But Pyrrah was already in tears, she clutched a piece of fabric in her hands and looked up at her youngest friend,

"Ruby..." She took a shuddering breath, "I'm _so_ sorry." She clutched the fabric even tighter. And looked at her friend, tears streaming from her brilliant emerald eyes.

Ruby smiled softly, sadly, "It's okay, it wasn't your fault."

"Yeah," Jaune was walking over, Pyrrah's weapons in hand.

He helped the other girl to her feet,

"That woman on the broadcast, she's the one who did this." He held out Pyrrah's weapons and gave her a warm, goofy smile.

Pyrrah returned his smile, soft, and slightly forced.

She took her weapons from his hands, and the two turned to look at Ruby, who smiled at them both.

Screeches from Grimm sounded near the top of the Colleseum.

Strange lion-like flying creatures rimmed the roof.

"Griffins." Ren voiced the name of the Grimm everyone saw, and Ruby frowned, setting down Penny's sword gently,

"Sun, I need your scroll." Sun nodded and used his tail to retrieve his scroll from his pocket, and toss it at Ruby.

The fifteen year old caught it and opened an app, pressing her thumb to the screen it read her fingerprint, then she typed in the coordinates.

She spun around as her locker slammed into the ground some fifteen feet behind her.

She threw the scroll back towards Sun, who caught it and put it away, she then ran towards her locker, of which automatically opened after ten seconds.

The moment she reached the metal box, a large griffin landed on top of it and snapped at her.

She shielded her face from the attack. Within seconds, shots from a range of weapons was heard, and the Grimm fell to the ground before disintigrating.

"Thanks!" She yelled towards her friends before grabbing and deploying her scythe. She turned to the many people standing in the arena with her.

She looked up at the some twenty Griffins beginning to converge on them. She held onto her weapon a bit tighter,

"Let's get them." She stated, and lunged upwards, trying the aspect of her seblance she'd wanted to try out for a few weeks now.

Flying straight up, rose petals scattered below her. To others, she looked like a red streak.

One aspect deemed possible, she used her scythe to slice a griffin's wing off. She also used that momentum to change directions.

While Ruby zipped around above them, killing whatever she could, Pyrrah shot her spear upwards and impaled a griffin in the chest.

As she called her weapon back to her, the griffin fell to the ground before shaking itself off.

That is until Yatsuhashi crushed it with his sword.

Coco deployed her weapon and began shooting at every flying Grimm that she could. The strength of her weapon let her decimate everything she hit.

Grimm were falling down everywhere and disintegrating upon contact with the ground. Within a minute, all the nearby Grimm were dead, and vanishing.

"We should go." Ren spoke up, looking to where another mass of Grimm could be seen on the horizon, and nearing fast.

Most everyone nodded and as a group, ran toward an exit.

* * *

Yang looked at her beloved pet dog and sighed. She stood up, and ran towards the door,

"Come on!" She yelled to Zwei as she opened to door and ran out. In the empty Hallway, she opened the scroll she'd never put down and called her partner.

Blake answered almost immidietly, "Yang!? Are you okay?" She asked and Yang ran down the hallway. Growling could be heard as she ran past a dorm room whose door had been thrust open by something large with claws.

"I'm fine, but Grimm are over running the school!"

"What!?" Weiss' voice yelled over Blake's side of the scroll.

"It's fine, I'm fine, have you seen Ruby?" Yang asked, ignoring the heiress.

"No, I thought she was with you?" Blake stated as sounds of Weiss taking out a young beowolf could be heard in the background.

Yang stopped running and stared at her scroll. Blake sensed her unease from the silence on the other end.

"I'm sure she's fine Yang, she's our leader after all." Blake assured her partner. Yang sighed,

"Yeah..." Before hanging up and putting her scroll away. She continued down the hallway and towards the stairs. The elevator seemed a little dangerous right now.

* * *

Ruby had run along with her group of friends towards the airship docks. They all skidded to a halt at the sight of General James Ironwood, walking up the ramp into his ship.

"Hey!" Ruby yelled, skidding to a halt just in front of him. He turned around.

Saying he looked stressed was putting it lightly. He looked tired, angry, stressed, and maybe, just maybe, a little tiny fraction scared.

Jaune spoke next, and Ruby was thankful to not be in the spotlight for any extended period of time.

"What should we do?" He asked, motioning to the people running around trying to evacuate the Colleseum. The General sighed and turned to completely face them.

"Grimm have over run the city, the White Fang is attempting to take over during the chaos, and some..." He stopped and looked around at the children he was in the presence of, then he turned to look at his ship, flying off into the distance.

"Some, bag-a-bon has stolen my ship."

"How can we help?" Pyrrah spoke up, looking up at him with eyes still glistening from unshed tears. The General sighed,

"You have two choices. Stay, and fight for the protection of your city, of your school, or run away. Flee, save yourselves." His gaze softened, and he added in a lighter, empathetic tone, "No one will fault you if you do."

With that, he turned and continued into his ship. The ramp lifted up and closed behind him, leaving the students to look at each other in shockSun laughed nervously, "Oh come on, now who in their right mind would run away during this?" He turned and motioned for the rest to follow him to an empty airship.

the large group of children climbed in, and Flynt and Neon, hailing from Atlas, and the only ones who knew how to fly a ship, started the engines. The airship lifted off the ground. Ruby stood next to Sun and Ren, staring out the glass covering of the ship.

Close by, she could see the general's flagship flying, a plan came to her, a crazy, ludicrous, plan.

"If you see Apanyone from my team, tell them I'm okay." She stated to no one in perticular, the ship was mostly silent after all, before running back towards the ramp that had closed.

She pressed the button to open the hatch as she passed it, and ignoring Sun's yell of her name, she jumped out before anyone could do anything.

Ren quickly closed the hatch. "Do you think she'll be alright?" He asked, turning to the rest of the students on the ship.

No one answered him

* * *

Qrow had found Glynda and Taiyang in the city. Vale was overrun, members of the White Fang were everywhere. Grimm were running about.

And Qrow had a lot on his mind. His patience was slipping. His blows weren't as strong as they usually were. He needed to fall back on the power he was given at birth.

"Cover me!" He yelled to the two teachers he was with, and retracted his sword. He jumped in between the two and took his contacts out.

"Ready?" Shouted Tai, as he killed yet another Grimm.

Suddenly, the robots of Atlas that had been dispersed around them stopped moving, and a strang whirring sound could be heard momentarily.

They all straightened up.

They turned around, guns pointed at the three people standing there.

Tai raised his fists, a weapon much like Ember Cecilia attached to them.

Glynda raised her riding crop.

Qrow, contacts in hand, opened his brilliant Silver eyes and stared at the Grimm, all of which stopped their advancement. The Grimm seemed to be watching his every move in anticipation.

The robots moved forwards.

The Grimm moved forward.

Tai and Glynda launched themselves at the robots as a Qrow's eyes emitted a silver glow.

The Grimm all froze in place, and as Tai and Glynda began to take out the robots, the grimm began to disintegrate, all the while, the light glow pulsated from Qrow's eyes.

The Grimm were gone. But another, larger wave of robots was approaching.

The three readied themselves.

That is, until a fourth showed up. Ironwood in all his narcissistic glory came walking around the corner. With three shots of his pistol-like weapon, he took out the humongous wave of his own robots.

"This sector is clear, we can use it as a safe zone..." He stopped talking, Qrow was staring at him.

"You never told us you had silver eyes." He tried to get Qrow to speak, but he only withdrew his weapon. It unfurled first into a sword, then into a scythe. He began running towards the man, picking up speed as he went.

Tai and Glynda didn't move.

"Qrow! I didn't do this!" He yelled holding his hands up in surrender.

The man continued towards him and jumped into the air. With one mightily slash of his scythe, which was much larger then Ruby's, he sliced a Griffin in half.

His weapon had barely penetrated the Grimm, yet whole body of the soulless creature fell in two, completely stopped from reaching its unsuspecting target.

He landed around six or seven feet away from Ironwood and laughed.

Glynda stepped forward, "We know it wasn't you." She stated in an annoyed tone. Ironwood focused back on Qrow, "Silver eyes?" He asked, confused.

Qrow shrugged, "What can I say, a lot of people want me dead." He said nonchalantly. Ironwood nodded, they could talk about that later.

"Qrow, we need to go find the girls." Tai stated, pointing towards the school.

"I need to get to my ship." Ironwood stated. A loud sound could be heard above them, and the group looked up.

Ironwood's ship crashed into the ground. They watched as it fell and a small explosion rattled the ground around them upon impact.

Qrow turned, amusement dancing in his eyes ad he scratched his head, a trait Ruby had obviously picked up from him, "well." He decided to look on the bright side for once, "Won't be much of a walk."

* * *

Once Ruby jumped out of her friends' ship, she used her weapon to propel her back to the Colleseum. She landed on her feet and ran back into the deserted structure.

She entered the arena and ran towards her locker. Quickly she checked to make sure it would still work. Once that was decided, she dismantled the system that told the locker where to go, and wrenched the blade of Crescent Rose into the system that controlled directions.

With a simple press of a button, the rocket took off. Ruby used her beloved weapon to control what direction she went in. She passed by the ship that her friends were in, and was pretty sure they noticed her. If they did, she hoped they wouldn't follow.

She directed the locker towards Ironwood's flagship. As she neared it, she readied herself to jump onto the top.

Now!

She wrenched her weapon out from the locker's system, and jumped off the locker. She landed with a loud thud on the ship spinning her scythe around to help her balance. Slowly she stood up and scanned the roof for an access hatch.

She had hardly moved more then five or six feet when the girl with the weird hair, (Neo? She thought she'd heard Roman call her by) exited through a hatch she'd been looking at. Umbrella closed, she looked at the girl with a smile before snapping a picture of her surprised face and typing something into her scroll.

Ruby frowned. She didn't have much time to think though, as the weird brown and pink girl lunged towards her. Ruby tried to hit her with the back of her weapon's blade, but the small girl was too agile.

She was almost a foot smaller then Ruby after all.

After about thirty seconds of neither person being able to land a hit, Neo managed to slam Ruby backwards. All without opening her umbrella. Ruby stood up, fighting the wind to keep a foothold.

When she looked up, Roman Torchwick was standing next to Neo. He smiled a deep, annoyed, smile before speaking.

"Well Red, we always seem to meet in the most agrivating of places. Do we not?" He asked, leaning on his cane. Ruby just scowled at him.

"What are you doing? We need these ships, or the Grimm will take over!" She yelled above the wind in an effort to get the man to realize his error. The man just shrugged, his smile ever present. A smile Ruby was beginning to associate with evil.

"That's the plan!" He yelled back before shooting a round of dust through his weapon at her. Ruby spun her scythe to block, and slid back a few feet.

"But why!?" She yelled, running towards him, scythe at the ready. Torchwick nocked her down easily.

"Why?" He asked, watching her get back to her feet, knowing that her effort was in vain. "Why not?" He asked, his smile widening.

"But people will die!" Ruby argued, scrambling to her feet. She swung her weapon at Roman who easily moved out of the way. Her silver eyes glinted in annoyed anger.

"Sometimes that happens!" He yelled, nocking her back to the ground, "you want to know why?" He asked, but didn't wait for the answer. "Because the real world is dark." He slammed his cane into her side, ignoring the fifteen year old's gasp of pain,

"The real world is painful!" He hit the girl with his cane again, and Neo smiled in the background, "the real world isn't all sunshine and rainbows!" Ruby scrambled to her feet before the man could slam his cane into her again.

"But why do you have to do this?" She yelled, holding Crescent Rose so that it curled around her protectively. She was close to the edge of the ship now. Looking down, one could see the thousands of Grimm taking over the sky's below. Ruby decided not to look down.

Looking forward Ruby saw Roman Torchwick. The ship took a giant lurch as a Grimm flew up the side of the ship, snapping at Ruby who easily killed it just before loosing her balance because of the lurch.

She fell off the side of the ship, but luckily for her, Crescent caught the edge of the hunk of metal, giving Ruby a strong hold on her flying lifeline. She looked up to where Roman and Neo now stood, towering over her. Neo smiled and pointed the tip of her closed umbrella down at her.

"This is where it ends Red." Torchiwick yelled, he sounded elated, almost giddy. Ruby thought fast. The tip of Neo's umbrella was incredibly sharp, long and pointed. But her umbrella was closed. Looking closely, Ruby noticed a button. If she reached forward she could probably just barely reach it.

She only had a few seconds anyway.

Ruby leaned forward, and pressed the button as fast as she could. The umbrella popped open, the sharp point retracting into the top of the weapon as it opened.

Immediately the wind dragged the umbrella away from Ruby, just in time to let the younger girl see the look of surprise on the shorter girl before the wind picked her up, and dragged her off through the Grimm infested sky's.

"Neo!" Roman yelled, his voice filled with anguish. He turned back just as Ruby heaved herself over the side of the ship. "You!" He yelled, his voice deep and full of anger. He advanced towards the girl with the scythe, cane raised in complete fury.

"People die." He stated, walking towards her, "people lie, cheat steal, and kill." He stated, coming even closer, "Do you know why I'm still alive?" He asked, five feet away from her now. Ruby raised her scythe slightly.

"It's because," Riman took another step forward, "I lie, cheat, steal," he raised his came to smack her away, "and I survi-"

Ruby had noticed the large Grimm coming up behind him, but she hasn't really been in a position to warn him. She stared up at the ancient Nevermore that had just eaten her attacker when a thought came to her mind. Holding crescent rose behind her, she jumped up just as the Grimm lunged towards her.

She came down fast and hard, sending the Grimm flying into the vessel she was standing on.

High up in the sky's above Vale, the ship began to explode in a few places, and turn to angle towards the ground.

Looking down, you could see the rapidly approaching city that was vale.

The streets were dark, save for the glowing, evil eyes of the Creatures of Grimm. Explosions rang out throughout the city, and in the distance stood Beacon.

Fires ravaged the school, explosions and flashes littered the grounds. Aiming for the airship docks at the school's cliffs, Ruby jumped off, using her weapon to slow her decent to the ground far below her.

She hit the ground lightly and began to run towards the school, the ship crashing into the ground behind her.

* * *

Blake and Weiss ran through the fair grounds. Blake was looking for her family, Weiss was helping. They made it to the stall that the family Blake had just reconnected with had managed. No one was there. Blake scoured the surrounding area. Only two or three people were in the vicinity.

"Maybe we should check the evacuation area, they're Mistralian, right?" Weiss asked her friend to alleviate her worries. Blake nodded and took off in that general direction. Weiss groaned and ran to catch up.

They reached the place where people from the other three kingdoms were boarding. Blake scoured the crowds before she saw them. Silver hair and silver ears, black hair and silver eyes, silver hair, ears, and eyes, there was her family. Blake breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mom!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, the word seemed foreign to her, but at the same time, it seemed right, "Dad! Jake!" She ran towards them just as they looked in her direction.

"Blakie!" Jake yelled, waving his hands above his head. He pumped her into a hug the moment she got there. Weiss ran as fast as she could to catch up.

"Are you guys okay?" Blake asked, looking her parents over. Remembering what Yang had told her, she looked for signs of her father's power. There was none. Not in Jake either. Maybe Yang was wrong.

Her parents nodded, "we're fine sweetie, we just need go back to Mistral. Are you going to come with?" Her mother looked at her with such hopeful eyes that it stung Blake to the core.

"I can't." She whispered, closing her eyes and hugging her sibling even tighter. "But," she looked up at them again, "one day, I'll get to Mistral, and I'll find you all, and we can be a family for once." She released her brother from his hug and bent down to speak with him.

"Jake, you be good, and work hard, and if I'm not back when you're strong enough, you come and find me too, okay?" She asked him. His eyes lit up, and he nodded.

"Last flight to Mistral!" Yelled a voice, and Blake watched as her family once again disapeared from her grasp. Once the bull-head took off, Blake turned and walked in the direction of the school. Once she was sure Weiss was following her, she broke into a run.

Once they got there, it was total anarchy. Students ran in every direction, an air-ship was touching down next to the statue, and Grimm as well as Atlesian soldiers chased the students of Beacon. Off in the distance near the docks, they saw a flash of red landing before swinging an oversized weapon to keep balance.

Ruby had arrived. The airship powered down, and the ramp opened. Teams JNPR, SSSN, CFVY, NDGO and FNKY stepped out. WB nodded to them and began to take out whatever they could, the soldiers were attacking, take them out. A Grimm got too close, kill it.

Soon everyone was working as one unit, when Yang ran out of a nearby building. She saw everyone and relief lined her scarlet irises. Running towards the group, she yelled a question that had been on her mind since the alarm had sounded about an hour or two ago.

"Where's Ruby?" She yelled, taking out a Grimm that was about to lunge towards her partner.

"She's here somewhere, I saw her land on the docks." Weiss supplied, shooting ice at an Atlesian soldier. Yang ran off to find her sister. Blake saw that, and glanced at Weiss, who nodded. The Faunus girl ran after her friend. No way Yang was running off alone yet.

The two girls ran in the general direction of the docks when something caught Blake's eye. She looked into a gaping hole that used to be the wall of the cafeteria. Inside tables were strewn around, fires had started here and there, rubble sat in disorganized piles that covered the floor.

Adam Touras stood among the rubble.

Ruby Rose was facing him.

* * *

A/N: Hello again! Family trip was great, thanks for asking! (No one...) I hit writers block but I persevered. Also, I decided that soon the novel will end, and I'll start the plot line up in a different story, so, yea... But it won't be for a while, maybe even a few months. Please review if you feel so inclined, please feel inclined. Please.


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